During the recent blackout across Ohio, Canada, and New York, seven gasoline refineries went offline, and were slow in getting back online, a process that can take up to 2 days. This simply adds to already short supply of gasoline during the late summer, a period marked by extremely high demand. The director of the Federal Energy Information Administration's petroleum division expects that the blackout problem alone could add several cents to the price of a gallon of gasoline. Gasoline prices for September delivery increased by $0.05 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, indicating the perception that gas prices will be increasing over time.

(Updated September 10, 2003)