Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency in Florida Tuesday evening due to recently halted operations for the Colonial Pipeline after it was the target of a cyberattack that disabled computer systems responsible for sustaining pipeline operations.
According to the Governor’s Executive Order, the director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management will be designated as the state coordinating officer during this emergency.
DeSantis has directed him to execute the state’s “Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan” and other response, recovery and mitigation plans to handle the emergency.
Colonial Pipeline is responsible for transporting a substantial percentage of all fuel consumed on the East Coast of the United States, including gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and other refined petroleum products.
However, Florida is not largely dependent on the Colonial Pipeline for gasoline. Most of Florida’s fuel is delivered from Gulf Coast refineries via waterborne vessels.
Because of this, Florida should remain well supplied with gasoline, despite the pipeline outage.
However, as always, pump prices remain vulnerable to futures price swings, which are influenced by domestic and international supply and demand.
“The longer the pipeline is down, the greater the threat of rising gas prices,” said Mark Jenkins, spokesman, AAA – The Auto Club Group. “If operations are restored on Monday, drivers may see very little to no impact at the pump. A lengthy downtime, like a week, would be a different story. Sunday night, gasoline futures prices were up less than a nickel.”
This is a developing story and we will update it as more information is released.