Colonial Pipeline ‘will NOT pay ransom to Russian hackers’ as Charlotte orders residents to ‘limit travel’ amid panic buying that has left 65% of N. Carolina gas stations dry: Pressure grows on Biden to act
- Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is calling on Biden administration to ‘step up’ and do more to ease fuel crisis
- Russian ransomware attack on key Colonial Pipeline is spurring fuel shortage across the Southeast
- Brawl broke out at a Marathon station on the outskirts of Raleigh as frustrations boiled over
- In metro Atlanta, nearly 60% of all gas stations are dry, and 65% of all stations in North Carolina are offline
- Parker’s gas chain in Georgia and South Carolina is limiting customers to $50 worth of gas each
- The Biden administration is urging motorists not to deepen the crisis with unnecessary panic buying
- Pete Buttigieg issued an extraordinary warning not to fill plastic bags with gasoline as panic spreads
- The national average price of gas now exceeds $3 for the first time since 2014
- Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia declare states of emergency over the fuel crisis
- South Carolina governor says provisions in COIVD emergency declaration make new one unnecessary
- Colonial, which is based in Atlanta, Georgia, has not yet said whether it will pay off the hackers
- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday denied any involvement with the attack
Colonial Pipeline reportedly has no plans to pay rumored $5 million-plus ransom to Russian hackers who have paralyzed the key gas pipeline, as pressure mounts on the Biden administration to do more to ease the fuel crisis that is gripping the southern Atlantic seaboard.
North Carolina has been the state hardest-hit by fuel shortages, with 65 percent of all gas stations dry in the state, but motorists across the South were impacted as the crisis entered its sixth day on Wednesday and shortages spread from Baltimore to Florida.
Officials with Colonial Pipeline say they will decide on Wednesday whether it is safe to begin a full restart, which could take days to complete. If the shutdown extends into the weekend, it could create broader fuel disruptions and spike gas prices across the nation ahead of the travel-heavy Memorial Day holiday.
Meanwhile, price gougers in Virginia have been busted charging up to $6.99 per gallon, and police in Charlotte are warning residents to ‘limit non-essential travel’ as more than 70 percent of gas stations in the city run dry.
In metro Atlanta, more than 60 percent of gas stations had no fuel on Wednesday, and the rate exceeded 70 percent in Raleigh, North Carolina and Pensacola, Florida.
The impact of the crisis is rippling across the country, with the national average price of gas exceeding $3 for the first time since 2014, after the Colonial Pipeline was disabled by a Russian ransomware attack on Friday.
‘I think this is something that demands really serious federal attention. This was essentially a cyberattack on critical infrastructure in our country,’ Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, said in Jacksonville on Tuesday evening.
‘You can’t just say it’s a private pipeline therefore, we’re not going to be involved. No, the U.S. government needs to be involved. They need to help mitigate this,’ said DeSantis.
‘My fear is you have these gas shortages, it’s going to cause a lot of problems for people, just the convenience of life, but also for our economy,’ he added.