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U.S. Senate hearing discusses fuel supply shortages
November 20, 2007
The Associated Press
Bismarck, N.D. (AP) Energy officials say the same problems that caused high prices and shortages of gasoline and diesel fuel in North Dakota may also hit home heating fuel this winter.
Senator Dorgan chaired a meeting today in Bismarck to try to find out what caused the problems and how to fix them. Dorgan is the chairman of the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee.
Dorgan asked an Energy Department official and representatives from the refineries that provide gasoline and diesel fuel to North Dakota to testify.
Howard Gruenspecht is deputy administrator of the Energy Information Administration. He says refinery outages "both planned and unplanned" and strong demand contributed to the fuel shortages in North Dakota and elsewhere.
Dorgan says North Dakotans paid the second highest price for gasoline in the nation this summer. And he says gasoline and the diesel fuel supplies were not always available when needed.
Gruenspecht says state's such as North Dakota that are on the end of fuel distribution pipelines had the biggest problems.
Mike Rud is president of the North Dakota Petroleum Marketers Association. He says fuels dealers have said that the tight supplies are as bad as the oil embargo of the 1970s.
Dawna Leitzke (LITE'-ski) is executive director of South Dakota Petroleum and Propane Marketers Association. She says her state also was suffering from severe fuel shortages because of high demand and refinery outages.
She says quote "It's not a good situation and it's not getting better." |
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