WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — Governor Brian Kemp is suspending the state fuel tax in Georgia until Saturday night.
That comes after a cyberattack shut down one of the country’s largest sources of fuel.
Five days ago, the Colonial Pipeline went offline after a cyberattack.
That pipeline runs from Texas to New Jersey and carries more than 100 million barrels of fuel every day, so to try to lessen the impact on drivers in Georgia, Kemp suspended state fuel taxes through Saturday night.
According to the Georgia Department of Revenue, the current tax on regular gas is about 28 cents and for diesel, it's about 31 cents.
He is also temporarily eliminating the weight limit for trucks transporting fuel, which will provide more supply for stations as they receive deliveries.
The order also prohibits price gouging, meaning gas stations can't raise their prices to an unfair level.
"While not all price increases qualify as gouging, we do want to make clear that anyone taking advantage of this disruption and making a quick buck off the backs of Georgians will not be tolerated," Kemp said in a news conference Tuesday morning.
Driving around Warner Robins, the highest price we saw for regular gas was $3.07.
Everywhere else stayed around $2.80.
Raymond Ditmar fueled up in Macon and he says it's more expensive.
"Warner Robins is actually a little cheaper than this, but not by much."
Darrell Snyder says he hasn't seen prices like this in a long time.
"I feel like I'm back home in the Savannah area. I've never seen gas in Macon since I've been here be this high."
Both men say they hope these prices aren't here to stay.
"Once my tank starts getting low again, I'm parking it," says Ditmar. "These gas prices are too expensive for me to be driving around."
According to AAA, the average cost of regular gas in Georgia on Tuesday was $2.87. The national average is about 10 cents more.
In his news conference, Kemp says the state expects this will be a short-lived problem. He said there is no need to fill up every tank you have or hoard gasoline.