It’s about a month before a supplier of gasoline for a big section of western Virginia is expected to end service in the region. That could mean a price hike of roughly 5 cents at the pump.
Colonial Pipeline announced last August it was shutting down Line 25, which feeds huge tanks in the Bedford County town of Montvale. Colonial says it isn’t worth the hundreds of millions in required repairs in the future.
That means companies like Foster Fuels, which serves independent gas stations and farmers, will soon have to send tanker trucks to Colonial’s terminal in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Sales manager Bill Moss says his company relies on Colonial for 98-percent of its fuel.
“Nobody really totally believed that this was going to happen, you know, we were hoping that something was going to come through, and they were going to keep Montvale open," he said. "But as the clock ticked, we realized several months ago this was actually going to happen, so we’re being proactive."
One positive coming out of the closure - Moss says his company will be hiring several more drivers to haul fuel.
Colonial spokesman Steve Baker says any chance of finding a buyer for Line 25 seems unlikely now.
“You know you can never say never on something like that," he said. "It does not look like that’s going to happen, but if somebody were to step up, we could re-open those negotiations and the deal making, but right now, it does not look that is going to happen.”
Closing the line will impact about 20 jobs for companies that operate the tanks, but Bedford County economic development director Tracy Blido says she’s helped about half those people find work elsewhere.
