The largest fuel pipeline in the U.S. is back online after a cyberattack. Colonial Pipeline says it resumed operations Wednesday night and that “product delivery has commenced” to all impacted markets.
This comes after a ransomware attack forced them offline last week in what is believed to be the most significant known cyberattack on U.S. energy infrastructure. However, the Georgia based company warns that it could be a few days before the supply chain is back to normal.
“Following this restart, it will take several days for the product delivery supply chain to return to normal,” the company said in a statement Wednesday. “Some markets served by Colonial Pipeline may experience, or continue to experience, intermittent service interruptions during the start-up period. Colonial will move as much gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel as is safely possible and will continue to do so until markets return to normal.”
On Thursday, President Joe Biden delivered an update on the situation and said the restart is “not like flicking on a light switch,” adding that he expects a “region-by-region return to normalcy beginning this weekend and continuing into next week.”
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told Spectrum News on Thursday that the U.S. has a “long way to go” in tightening its cyber defenses.
On Wednesday, President Biden signed an executive order intended to tighten up the federal government’s digital defenses and to guard against future attacks like the one on Colonial Pipeline.
Meanwhile, much of the Southeast remains in the grip of panic buying that reportedly cleaned out more than half the gas stations in Georgia, Virginia and the Carolinas. Earlier this week, frantic drivers in the Southeast raced to fill up their tanks, even in areas that are not supplied by Colonial Pipeline.
One couple told News Not Noise that changed a planned road trip to Florida for a wedding to a last minute flight booking. They were unsure if they would have been able to fuel up once they were in the Southeast.
Increased demand has inflated the national average for a gallon of gas to $3.02, according to AAA, the highest level since 2014.
