Colonial Pipeline shuts vital gasoline pipeline to investigate potential leak in Georgia
CNN
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The Colonial Pipeline has temporarily shut its main gasoline line to investigate a report of a leak in Georgia, the pipeline's operator said in a statement on Tuesday.
The 5,500-mile Colonial Pipeline is one of the most important pieces of energy infrastructure in the United States, providing nearly half the gasoline and diesel fuel consumed by the East Coast. The impacted pipeline, Line 1, is a vital part of the biggest pipeline system in the United States and carries 1.5 million barrels of fuel per day from Texas into North Carolina.
"Colonial Pipeline is responding to a report of a potential gasoline release on our right of way in Paulding County, Ga.," Colonial Pipeline Company spokesperson David Conti said in a statement to CNN. "We have temporarily shut down Line 1, crews are on scene coordinating response efforts, and we have made all required notifications."
Sara Lips, spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Environmental Protection Division, said the agency was first notified of the potential leak on Monday evening.
"We are currently investigating the leak along with other federal and local officials," Lips said.
CNN has reached out to the Environmental Protection Agency and Colonial Pipeline for more information, but did not immediately receive a response. It's unclear at this time whether there is actually a pipeline leak.
There is no timetable at this point for when Line 1 will be restarted, the Colonial Pipeline spokesperson told CNN.
Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said the shutdown is unlikely to cause problems if it only lasts a few days because demand is weak during this time of the year and there is ample storage.
"If it goes beyond three to five days, that would be problematic," De Haan said.
De Haan said that roughly 90% of the gas station outages during the 2021 Colonial Pipeline shutdown were caused by panic-buying, not the pipeline disruption itself.
"If people rush out to fill their tanks, they might end up creating more of a situation," he said.
A cyberattack caused a crippling six-day shutdown in 2021 that sparked panic-buying and hoarding at gas stations in the Southeast.
