Don’t top off your tank

Be a patriot. Be unselfish. Be strong. Don’t top off your car’s gas tank because you’ve heard that Hurricane Rita could bring us $5 gas and lines around the block.

Panic and a “I’ve got to get mine” mentality is just going to make the gasoline situation a lot worse. Fill up when you usually do, not before. I wait until my tank is two-thirds to three-fourths empty. Please do the same.

Stifle the urge to horde gas by rushing out to fill up. If everyone does this, a lot of the nation’s gasoline is going to be sloshing around in people’s tanks. Then it won’t be available at the pump. Hence, gas lines and even higher prices.

Let’s learn from what happened after Hurricane Katrina: “Pumps run dry as motorists rush to top off tanks,” reported the Houston Chronicle. Artificial shortages can be created when drivers try to beat their fellow citizens to the pump.

Filling up before you need to is selfish. Maybe Hurricane Rita won’t be as bad as forecasts are saying. But it might be worse. As Americans we’re all in this together, whether we live on the Gulf Coast or elsewhere.

Let’s act all together: calmly, compassionately, humbly. Would you rush into a grocery store to buy the last loaves of bread on the shelf even though you have plenty at home, leaving a hungry person right behind you with nothing to eat?

I hope there won’t be gas shortages and rising prices in the coming weeks. But if there are, I’m determined not to make the problem worse. I’ll fill up when I need to, not before. I hope you’ll do the same.

[Update on 9/22: today the American Petroleum Institute is urging Americans not to top off their tanks to save fuel. I doubt that the American Petroleum Institute and I agree on many things, but this is one of them.]

Comments

[Laura]

I would normally agree with this, except that the people who ARE going to be topping off their tanks are the ones who own giant SUV's, because those people are usually the selfish ones. They power their way through parking lots and highways with an "you'd better watch out or I'll crush you" attitude. What floors me most, is even with the price of gas lately, people are NOT stopping buying these monster vehicles- sales at one local dealer is selling these gas-guzzlers over economy rides by a 10-1 margin. Yes, that's TEN TO one!!! What are these people thinking??? I guess the sooner THEY get rid of the world supply of petrolium, the sooner we can convert to hybrids or hydrogen or something like that. Maybe we'll all be forced to ride our bikes! That would be cool.

[Dalene]

I stopped in yesterday to get gas, (I was down to 1/4 of a tank -- thats when I normally get gas -- and I keep hoping miraculously I will wake up to find the gas at a reasonable price before I have to get gas again -- yeah right like thats going to happen), and I asked the guy working there if people were coming in to top off their tanks. He just rolled his eyes in disgust and said they were not only topping off their tanks, they were bringing in every gas can they had, getting those filled, and some people had even come in to have 55 gallon drums filled. What do they think is going to happen when their personal reserves run out and there is little or no more gas to be had? I say to them, "what then Sparky?" You know there is a real division in this country in the mindset of people who call this nation home. And this realization, more obvious in the last five years, just makes me more and more and more cynical. And I have been accused of being a Pollyanna in the past, because of my usual optimism. Not so much anymore.