Not only will holiday-weekend drivers find the most expensive gas prices in years, but they may also find "closed" signs on some fuel stations.
However, this is not due to a gas shortage, but instead a gas truck driver shortage.
With stores and restaurants closed, demand for non-delivery truck drivers in general dropped off when the pandemic hit. This deficit in drivers has caused some gas stations in Northern California to temporarily close this summer on days they run out of gas.
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"It’s not indicative of a problem with U.S. refinery, it’s just not enough drivers to take those tank trucks," Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis for the Oil Price Information Service, told KCBS Radio. "It’s kind of like the movie ‘Mad Max’ except the madness might manifest itself in the population."
The fear is that people may hear about these closed stations, which have been reported both in California and across the country, and could panic and hoard gas like what happened during the Colonial Pipeline gas shortage on the East Coast earlier this year. Kloza warned the public not to take such drastic measures as these outages are only temporary.
"You may see higher prices and you may see the occasional bad pump or outage. But this is transitory. This is not the new normal. This is not the road we are going to see for the rest of this year or this decade," he said.
He expects this driver decrease to end in September when demand for gas usually drops off.
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