No free gas after all, state says

Participants at Tuesday's hurricane workshop were told about a new state plan under which needy hurricane evacuees would be able to pull over at certain gas stations and fill their tanks for free if they were trying to flee a storm headed for the Texas coast. Jenniffier Hawes of the DPS told people at the conference that drivers would be able to stop at Valero, Shell, Exxon Mobil and Marathon stations to get the free fuel: "We don't want a lack of financial resources to leave someone stranded," Hawes told the AP after her presentation.

Sounds like a nice idea, right? But as it turns out, it's not true. There is no state plan for free fuel, and now some state officials are worried about what might happen if people expect no-cost gas.

The revelation of a non-existent free fuel plan surprised -- and scared -- many state agencies and industry officials who would be directly involved in such a situation.

If motorists showed up to stations expecting free gas during an evacuation, "we could end up with riots in our driveways," said Scott Fisher, spokesman for the Texas Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association.

Gas availability was one of the key areas discussed by Gov. Rick Perry's hurricane task force after many gas stations ran dry during the Rita evacuation last fall. And though the state said it will work with gas companies to make sure stations are stocked if a storm heads this way, nobody ever said anything about free gas — except Hawes, that is. A TxDOT spokesman told the AP yesterday that the closest thing to free gas in an evacuation will be state patrol trucks that can give stranded motorists enough gas to get to a station. "There will be no free fill-ups," Mike Cox told reporters.

Hawes, not surprisingly, did not comment Wednesday.

Photo from flickr user truckdriver_968