Have extra water and food on hand, in that order.
I'm not saying that a gas crisis is a mathematical certainty, but I'm seeing gas running out in different parts of the U.S., lack of jet fuel causing the cancellation of flights, and reports of multiple oil platforms that have either been sunk or severely damaged.
The release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve might be able to ameliorate the situation for a while. The immediate question, however, is refining capacity. With virtually no excess capacity in the system before Katrina, where are we now? <--- Rhetorical question.
Just look at the Nymex gasoline futures contracts. Those blinking digits are going to profoundly affect all of our lives in the days and weeks ahead.
The
comments of a White House economic adviser, Ben Bernanke, are what convinced me to tell all of you to consider making emergency preparations:
"As long as we find that the energy impact is only temporary and there's not permanent damage to the infrastructure, my guess is that the effects on the overall economy will be fairly modest."
Did you get that? If people like me know that there is substantial infrastructure damage, and that capacity was against the wall before Katrina, I would expect that Ben Bernanke knows the real score.
Water and food, in that order.
posted by Kevin at 10:05 AM