Biden urges Americans not to panic and stock up on fuel after cyberattack

Huy Hoang• DNUM_BEZAFZCACB 08:24

US President Joe Biden has reassured people in the US East Coast about fuel shortages, following a cyberattack that 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.

*US President Joe Biden informs the press about the situation of troubleshooting after the cyber attack on the Colonial Pipeline system*(Photo: AP)

President Bidenalso updated the four steps his administration is taking to speed up the recovery process, 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 the situation was temporary 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 coming back to normal, and panic buying will only slow that process down. I also want to say something to gas stations: Don’t try to take advantage of consumers during this time.”

President Biden also said he would work with the governors of affected states to stop 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 that 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 the Colonial Pipeline company had to pay the DarkSide hacker group nearly $ 5 million in cryptocurrency./.