In New Orleans the refineries that are still down are bedeviled by the flooding and the lack of power, Port Arthur and the adjacent refineries have acquired the same problem. The latest reports suggest that it is going to take perhaps a month to get things back to "normal." But normal assumes that the category 5 Hurricane that Rita was as it came into the oil production zone did little damage.  There is no realistic viewpoint that can justify that assumption.

There were significant concerns about being able to repair the Katrina damage, since it was worse than that imposed by Ivan, last year.  But to pretend, as some of the MSM are already doing, that we are home free for the rest of the year, is more than irresponsible.  The fact that Georgia is closing schools for a couple of days to recognize the short term fuel problem is to minimize the concerns that should be going up as red flags all over the Eastern half of the country.

Right now the production from the Gulf is completely shut down. It is going to be that way for a while, as companies go back and bring the platforms back to life, and test the pipelines that will bring the oil to shore. Even with little damage the experience from Katrina suggests that this is going to take at least a month.  In the interim the pipelines supplied by the Texas and Louisiana refineries may begin to see a supply problem.  Luckily they are near the major storage of the SPR, though even that has a limit to the amount that can be easily made available.  Remember also that we are in a world where the foundation ground is disappearing due to flooding and storm activity.  The response of the MSM so far is still a "we dodged a bullet" but unfortunately we haven't taken our shirt off yet.

But then, on the other hand, maybe global warming will make this a really mild winter.  If you live in somewhere such as Maine, perhaps you'd better start hoping that that will be the case,