RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - The Latest on the Alabama pipeline explosion and its impact on North Carolina: (all times local):
6:45 p.m.
Gov. Pat McCrory has signed an executive order waiving some requirements to allow trucks to deliver gasoline and to protect consumers from price gouging.
McCrory’s latest executive order is an extension of an order issued for Hurricane Matthew. The order waives maximum hours of service for drivers and temporarily suspends vehicle size and weight restrictions to allow transport of gasoline. Extending the state of emergency also extends price gouging laws to help protect North Carolinians from excessive gas prices at the pump. The governor took similar action during an earlier disruption to the pipeline in September.
The governor has suspended non-essential travel for state employees. McCrory also directed the Department of Environmental Quality to work with the Department of Agriculture to use different gasoline formulas to increase access to supplies from northern states.
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4:20 p.m.
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory said his administration was monitoring the explosion at an Alabama pipeline for possible disruptions to the state’s gasoline supply.
McCrory said Tuesday that his office is preparing for all options in response. He later urged citizens not to participate in panic buying, saying it would only make the situation worse.
The governor said the pipeline provides 70 percent of North Carolina’s gasoline supply.
Earlier. North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper announced the state’s law regarding price gouging was still in effect. It was initially implemented after the same pipeline was disrupted by a leak in September. It was triggered again after Hurricane Matthew struck the eastern part of the state.
McCrory, a Republican, and Cooper, a Democrat, are opposing each other in the 2016 governor’s race.
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3:58 p.m.
North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper is reminding residents that the state’s price gouging law remains in effect in the wake of a fatal explosion in Alabama that shut down a pipeline supplying gasoline across the Southeast.
A previous shutdown of the same gas pipeline in September triggered the law, which went into effect again in October by Hurricane Matthew and remains in effect statewide.
Cooper’s office is currently investigating businesses for possible price gouging related to Hurricane Matthew as well as for alleged gas price gouging due to problems with the pipeline in September. He advised residents that if they see excessive prices at the pump, they should call his office.
Cooper is the Democratic candidate for governor in North Carolina, challenging Republican incumbent Pat McCrory.
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