A friend of mine from northern Indiana sent me an e-mail this morning. Apparently he had heard that there's a gas shortage here in middle Tennessee and he was asking if, one was it true, and two, how could that be? Well, I'll try to explain it the best that I can.

From what I understand middle Tennesse gets its gas from a pipeline that runs from Houston, TX. That pipeline's flow of gasoline was interrupted when Hurricane Ike hit the Gulf Coast and Houston regions. That makes sense as everyone was evacuated for safety reasons. But that was over 10 days ago, and due to everyone in middle Tennessee panicking and buying up all the gas, we're out. Everywhere. The refineries have started producing gas again, and they have begun filling the pipeline that feeds middle Tennessee. However, gasoline flows through the pipeline at 3 to 4 miles per hour, so it's going to be a few more days before we're back to 'normal' inventories.

The few gas stations that do have gas vary in their prices. My wife paid $3.86 a gallon for it yesterday (after waiting for almost an hour and a half) but was told by someone at the station that another station had opened its pumps at $4.99 a gallon earlier that day. That's exactly why I wonder why Tennessee doesn't have a 'price-gouging' law. If anyone knows why, let me know.

And if I've missed anything, let me know, but this is what I know at this time. If I find out anything, I'll let you know.