Boutique Blend Gasoline

The author witnessed the evaporation of Nashville's (his hometown) fuel supply in the wake of hurricane Ike. I saw a gas line a mile long stretching from Kaya's Belle Meade station, evidently the last one in the city with gas. When investigating how this calamity could befall, the author discovered that the refinery that produces Nashville's EPA-mandated blend had been damaged by the storm. Yes, three grades of unleaded are not enough for the air-testing bureaucrats. They insist communities customize like a cup of Starbucks driving up the price and narrowing the availability of an already scarce and expensive commodity. Many of the cars in Nashville are tourists or commuters who bought a different blend of gas somewhere else. The air-quality effort is a failure with smog alerts throughout the year and warnings for those with respiratory problems virtually all summer long. Instead of mandating dozens of different fuel blends, the government should create a standard and then approve the rapid production of new refineries to produce it. It's gasoline-not gourmet coffee.