Colonial Pipeline says fuel system returned to ‘normal operations’
ATLANTA — The operator of the nation’s largest gasoline pipeline — hit May 7 by a ransomware attack — said Saturday that it has resumed “normal operations,” delivering fuel to its markets, including a large swath of the East Coast.
Georgia-based Colonial Pipeline had begun the process of restarting the pipeline’s operations Wednesday evening, warning it could take several days for the supply chain to return to normal.
“Since that time, we have returned the system to normal operations, delivering millions of gallons per hour to the markets we serve,” Colonial Pipeline said Saturday.
Those markets include Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
Gas shortages, which spread from the South, all but emptying stations in Washington, D.C., have been improving since a peak Thursday night.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Friday that the nation is “over the hump” on gas shortages, with about 200 stations returning to service every hour.
Some stations were still out of gas Saturday in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Driver Jermaine Barnes told CBS17 the shortage has made him more conservative with his trips.
“I’m not going places I don’t need to go,” he said. “I’m not visiting people. I’m watching where I’m driving. I’m doing everything different right now.”
Multiple sources confirmed that Colonial Pipeline had paid the criminals who committed the cyberattack a ransom of nearly $5 million in cryptocurrency for the software decryption key required to unscramble their data network.
The pipeline system delivers about 45% of the gasoline used on the East Coast.
US vaccinations: More than 70% of Americans who are 65 or older are fully vaccinated, and 84% have received at least one dose, a much higher proportion than for younger Americans, according to federal data. The numbers have surpassed President Biden’s goal of at least partly vaccinating 70% of the nation’s adults by July 4.
Some counties have blown far past that threshold, getting shots into more than 90% of residents 65 and older and offering an example for other areas where vaccine campaigns have lagged.
Two of the most populous 90%-plus counties are Jo Daviess County, Illinois, across the Mississippi River from Dubuque, Iowa, and Dane County, Wisconsin, which includes Madison, the state capital.
Elected and health officials in both counties suggested that some of the measures that they have adopted locally, such as expanding access and relying on trusted medical figures to share information about vaccines, were also reflected in the federal government’s strategy to reach those who have not received shots yet after the pace of vaccination has lagged in recent weeks.
UK virus fight: British health workers, aided by the army, distributed coronavirus tests door-to-door Saturday in two towns in northern England, seeking to contain a fast-spreading variant that threatens plans to lift all lockdown restrictions next month.
Cases of a variant first identified in India have more than doubled in a week, defying a sharp nationwide downward trend in infections won by months of restrictions and a rapid vaccination campaign.
Government scientific advisers say this variant is likely more transmissible than even the U.K.’s dominant strain, though it’s unclear by how much.
“If the virus is significantly more transmissible, we are likely to face some hard choices,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said at a news conference Friday.
He said the next stage of lockdown-easing measures would take place as planned Monday, but warned the variant might delay plans to lift all restrictions, including social distancing and face-covering rules, on June 21.
Tesla crash: The driver of a Tesla involved in a fatal crash that California highway authorities said may have been operating on Autopilot posted social media videos of himself riding in the vehicle without his hands on the wheel or foot on the pedal.
The May 5 crash in Fontana, a city 50 miles east of Los Angeles, is also under investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The probe is the 29th case involving a Tesla that the federal agency has probed.