If you see gas going up, or even a gas shortage, it is likely because of a cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline, which runs through and serves Mississippi.
“It’s going to be a pricing impact only to the states that this pipeline serves, that is those southern, eastern U.S. states,” said Patrick DeHaan, with Gasbuddy.com.
As of Tuesday evening the state average for gas was $2.60, and rising, according to Gasbuddy. But, the implications of the attack were not yet clear.
“Not all of them may be fully known, simply because the gravity of the situation is nothing we’ve ever seen before,” said DeHaan. “This is nothing to mess around with. You are potentially impacting the lives of tens of millions of Americans every day.”
DeHaan said the people who have attacked the pipeline, which has now been shut down as a precautionary measure since Friday, consider themselves a “Robin Hood”, a group that robs from rich corporations and gives to charities. However, their ransomware attack may actually serve to put more of a hardship on people who have to pay more for gas.
“This is a critical piece of national infrastructure and I highly expect that the U.S. is going to go after this hacker group with a vengence, as they should.”
Some of the most expensive gas in the state was at a station in Carthage, where regular was $2.94. It was unclear if that price was related to the potential increase.
From the News Desk of Chris Davis
