Just what we needed on Election Day: The potential for some voters to run out of gas | McClatchy Washington Bureau

Could gasoline pumps run dry in the Southeastern U.S. just in time for Election Day?

A deadly explosion on a gasoline pipeline in Alabama earlier this week has cut off the supply of 1.4 million barrels a day to voters from Georgia to Maryland.

The pipeline’s operator, Colonial Pipeline, is just beginning the process of excavating and draining the damaged section of pipe. It will need to be replaced and tested before the pipeline can become operational again, and that won’t happen before Sunday.

In September, some 330,000 gallons spilled from the same pipeline, and it was out of service for 12 days. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, fuel inventories in the Southeast fell to their lowest levels on record just a week after the pipeline shut down.

Election Day falls a week and a day after the beginning of the latest disruption, and higher prices and shortages could await.

Workers were making repairs to Colonial’s Line 1 on Monday near Birmingham, Alabama, when they struck the pipe with a piece of excavating equipment. An explosion sent a column of burning gasoline and smoke into the air. One worker was killed and five were transported to a hospital.

Line 1 runs from the Gulf Coast to a storage hub in Greensboro, North Carolina, that supplies several surrounding states. North Carolina relies on the pipeline for 70 percent of its gasoline supply, Gov. Pat McCrory said Tuesday.

North Carolina is not only a battleground state in the presidential election, it also could well determine which party controls the U.S. Senate.

Though no price spikes or shortages have been reported yet, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said Thursday that retail prices in the affected areas were likely to increase. North Carolina and other states would have to rely on truck and marine deliveries of gasoline to maintain supplies, both options more costly.

The previous disruption began on Sept. 9. By the end of that first week, gasoline stocks in the Southeast had fallen by 6 million barrels. To put that in perspective, U.S. drivers consume about 9 million barrels of gasoline every day.

This post has been updated to reflect Colonial’s revised schedule for restoring Line 1.