School buses could be affected by fuel shortage: Crude oil not being delivered to certain areas

County school systems in parts of West Virginia are facingpotential fuel shortages sparked by Hurricane Katrina that couldforce parents to provide transportation to football games and otherextracurricular activities.

"It's a mixed bag at this point," said Ben Shew, director ofschool transportation for the West Virginia Department of Education."There appears to be more of a distribution problem on the west andsouth side of the state. The eastern side of the state doesn't seemto have a problem at this point because their supplies come from arefinery on the East Coast.

"Some of the counties are looking at alternative plans and howlong their supply will last and what they have on hand and whetherthey can get supplies elsewhere."

Gulf Coast crude oil is not being delivered to several areasbecause of the hurricane, causing several refineries in the Midwestto back off supplies, said Linda Casey, a spokeswoman for Marathon-Ashland Petroleum, which operates a refinery in Catlettsburg, Ky.Casey said emergency vehicles are being given priority but thatschool buses are not considered emergency vehicles. The company'seight refineries in Louisiana are now closed because of Katrina.

"We certainly have a problem," said Todd Bloss, transportationdirector for Wood County's schools. "We can run about seven days withfuel we store so if supply is cut off, we don't have much of acushion. Our supplier said we will get a delivery next week but afterthat we have to wait and see."

Fuel cost increased $167,000 this year for the same amount offuel, consuming 50 percent of the county's transportation budget.

"We're looking at something that eats up most of our budget," hesaid. "That there appears to be no end in sight is the problem."

In Kanawha County, transportation to athletic events and otherextracurricular activities has not been canceled but an assistantsuperintendent has been assigned to evaluate each request to curtailcosts, said George Beckett, transportation director for the county'sschools.

Kanawha County school buses have had their fuel orders cut in halffrom two 10,000-gallon deliveries to two 5,000-gallon loads, Beckettsaid.

"We're not getting our full supplies but we have been assured byour supplier that we will get fuel, just not a full load but fuel,"Beckett said.

School systems also are considering discontinuing the practice ofallowing bus drivers to take buses home instead of parking them at acentral location as another cost-saving measure, Shew said.

Six northern counties are using alternative fuel sources, such asbiodiesel, a soybean derivative that is blended with regular diesel,he said.

Officials with West Virginia's two largest counties - Cabell andKanawha - also are closely watching the fuel shortage. Bothtemporarily averted a shortage for their emergency vehicles andpublic transportation systems Wednesday when overdue deliveriesarrived.