Biden urges Americans not to panic and stock up on fuel after cyberattack
US President Joe Biden has just reassured people in the US East Coast states about the fuel shortage, after a cyber attack paralyzed the Colonial Pipeline system last week.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, President Biden said that Colonial had begun restarting refined product flows in its pipelines since the evening of May 12. By the morning of May 13, fuel had begun flowing to most of the markets it serves and would soon reach full operating capacity.
President Bidenalso updated four steps his administration is taking to speed up recovery efforts, mitigate the negative impact of fuel shortages and protect consumers.
President Biden said it was a whole-of-government response to get more fuel where it was needed. He urged drivers in affected states not to panic, saying it was a temporary situation and urging people not to buy more gas than they need in the next few days.
“As I said, we expect things to start improving this weekend and early next week,” President Biden said. “Gas supplies are slowly returning to normal, and panic buying will only slow that process down. I also want to say a few words to gas stations: Don’t try to take advantage of consumers during this time.”
President Biden also said he would work with governors of affected states to prevent price gouging. Federal agencies are ready to support state-level efforts to monitor and address any issues with fuel pump pricing. President Biden urged no one to take advantage of the situation for financial gain, saying that is what the hackers are trying to do.
President Biden said the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has released details of the attack so others can take steps to prevent the same fate that Colonial suffered.
Mr. Biden also emphasized once again that the White House does not believe the Russian government was involved in this attack, but there is good reason to believe that the criminals who carried out this attack are living in Russia. President Biden also refused to answer reporters' questions about the information that Colonial Pipeline had to pay the DarkSide hacker group nearly $5 million in cryptocurrency./.
