Two weeks ago, I described on a syndicated weekly radio commentary, Peak Oil Check-In, a situation that wasn't getting much play in the national media: regional shortages of gasoline and other refined products in the wake of hurricanes Gustav and Ike. This last week, the national media paid some attention, even though the larger story of the meltdown of the US financial sector is (rightfully) dominating headlines.

The US "paper of record," the New York Times, had a short article last Sunday reporting fuel shortages and long gas-lines in Atlanta, Nashville and Tallahassee. The article quoted Jason Toews, founder of GasBuddy.com, as predicting the shortages would last another week or two.

Local reporting confirms the view in the Times. For example, the web site of the NBC TV affiliate in Atlanta said Monday that many gas stations there that did have gas had only a single pump open or were offering only a single grade of gasoline.

In response to the shortages, the Nashville City Paper published an editorial Monday that I liked so much I thought I would quote an unusually long excerpt of it. The editorial's philosophy is equally applicable to the acute shortages now being experienced in the southeast, the chronic fuel shortages we're all likely to face as world oil production drops after peak oil, and the financial sector's meltdown.

The headline of the Nashville City Paper's editorial is, "Governments should keep populace informed on gasoline." Here's some of what it says:

As America tries to change its attitude about energy sources and consumption, it is imperative that government keep up - not just in terms of regulations but in guiding the populace.

After all, what is leadership - or governance for that matter - other than guidance? ...How about if government started the process with just a little old-fashioned information and some accompanying suggestions?

There was a growing sense of panic in Nashville and surrounding Middle Tennessee counties last week that hit a crescendo Friday around lunchtime. The problem - the region was clearly running out of gasoline.

Filling station after station sat with cellophane bags draped over pump handles. Angry motorists - many of them working class folks - sat idly in long lines that stretched down city blocks waiting for their turn at gas stations lucky enough to have product...

Gasoline has slowly started to make its way back to Middle Tennessee pumps. The question now is: What have we as a community learned from this mess?

Let's start with a lesson for governments both state and local. Government does not need to treat gasoline availability like a market issue. Government needs to stay on top of the gasoline availability issue and communicate at length with the public when a shortfall is anticipated.

Last week, [Tennesee] Gov. Phil Bredesen's office rolled out an explanation late Friday, which read like an admonition to essentially "stay calm." What was needed was for some arm of Tennessee government to be more aware than the general populace that this kind of shortage of a very essential commodity was going to happen. The next step would then be to over-communicate the facts to people directly and to the media...

The lesson for government is that nature abhors a vacuum. In the absence of good, proactive information from our elected leaders on this kind of crisis people will simply do what feels safe and prudent. That may not always be the right answer.

It is all too likely this kind of issue will become more a fact of modern life and not less of one. Our world is changing in its disposition toward energy consumption, which is a very positive thing. At the same time, current energy sources are becoming scarcer and now subject to the whims of natural disasters.

...Government cannot make gasoline exist that does not exist. At the same time, as government does with many other issues, it should include fuel availability as one of the factors it watches on our behalf.

Information on long-term fuel availability is also important for government to provide, and for media to "over-communicate," as the City Paper puts it. Neither of the major presidential candidates has had the courage to warn the country that oil supplies may well be constricted within the decade, and as far as I'm aware, New York Governor David Patterson is the only one of the nation's 50 governors who has addressed peak oil.

And oh, it would have been nice to have had some more information about the state of the financial sector before an emergency request for a trillion-dollar bailout.