FRANKLIN, Tenn — Gas prices continue to rise and it's having an impact on those who use their car to help those in need.

The Mid-Cumberland Meals-on-Wheels in Tennessee is experiencing this firsthand. Staff say they already had a volunteer quit because of the rising costs.

Around 10 a.m., volunteers start trickling in to grab the food orders for their routes in Franklin.

Many volunteers like Gail Stark help serve over 300,000 meals annually from 17 meal sites in the region.

"I retired probably 12 years ago, and I thought 'you know I really need to do something to help other people, I feel so blessed with what I have been, how can I give back?' and so I signed up."

Starck has been helping for two years now and calls it one of the most rewarding things that she has ever done in her life.

She helps serve more than 11 million meals to seniors in Middle Tennessee.

Staff say not only is it important these seniors get a nutritious meal but meet people as well.

"It’s very important to our clients here in the area to get a meal because sometimes it is the only interaction that they have with a volunteer or with someone throughout the day," said site manager, Lindsey Burbank.

But with the gas prices climbing, it's driving away the help this organization says it desperately needs.

"I’ve recently just lost a volunteer that can’t deliver right now. She said she’s going to come back as soon as the gas prices go down," Burbank said. "All of our counties especially the ones that go out and the rural areas really do have a hard time when you’re delivering meals miles apart from each other. It’s the first thing that goes, it’s not in their budget."

Mid-Cumberland Meals-on-Wheels is hoping the prices at pump don't continue to turn good help away.

"Gas prices haven't really affected me, I come from Thompson station. So it probably is only a gallon of gas that I use. I know out in some of the rural areas, you know, the folks have to drive a little bit further and use a little bit more but even if gas went up to $20 a gallon, I would still do this because that's how rewarding it is to me," said Starck.

The staff is hopeful they can find more volunteers like Starck.

This story was first reported by Kelsey Gibbs at WTVF in Nashville, Tenn.

Consumers picked up their spending from May to June, underscoring their resilience despite painfully higher prices at the gas pump and in grocery aisles and allaying fears that the economy might be on the verge of a recession.

U.S. retail sales rose 1% in June, from a revised decline of 0.1 % in May, the Commerce Department said Friday.

The figures aren't adjusted for inflation and so largely reflect higher prices, particularly for gas. But they also show that consumers are still providing crucial support for the economy and spending on such discretionary items as furniture, restaurant meals and sporting goods.

SEE MORE: U.S. Inflation Reached 40-Year High Of 9.1% In June

At the same time, last month's spending gain is modest enough that it likely won't encourage the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates even more aggressively. Stock prices rose after the report's release.

Consumers still have significant savings, on average, bolstered by pandemic-era government relief checks and strong hiring and pay gains. JPMorgan executives said Thursday that their customers are still breaking out their credit and debit cards at a healthy pace.

The report showed consumers' ongoing appetite for nonessentials like gadgets and furniture. In fact, sales at furniture stores rose 1.4%, while consumer electronics stores rose 0.4%. Online sales showed a resurgence, posting a 2.2% increase. Business at restaurants was up 1%. But department stores took a hit, posting a 2.6% decline.

The solid figures bode well for the back-to-school shopping season, the second largest sales period behind the winter holidays. Mastercard SpendingPulse, which tracks spending across all payment forms including cash, forecasts that back-to-school spending will be up 7.5% from July 14 through Sept. 5 compared with the year-ago period when sales rose 11%.

But spending is volatile. The latest round of retail earnings reports published in May showed some slowing of spending, particularly with low-income shoppers. RH, an upscale furniture chain, cut its sales outlook for the year last month, pointing to deteriorating macro-economic conditions. It pointed to higher mortgage rates, which are slowing sales of luxury homes, indicating that even wealthy shoppers are pulling back.

Nevertheless, the overall solid spending came even as shoppers were confronted with high prices in all areas. U.S. inflation surged to a new four-decade high in June because of rising prices for gas, food and rent, squeezing household budgets and pressuring the Fed to raise rates aggressively — trends that raise the risk of a recession.

The retail sales report covers about a third of overall consumer spending and doesn't include services, such as haircuts, hotel stays and plane tickets.

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The trucking industry is looking to cut its large carbon footprint in the form of EV and hybrid big rigs. There are now almost 3 million tractor-trailers on the road using more than 36 billion gallons of diesel fuel each year, according to trucking industry experts.With diesel fuel prices rising once again, trucking companies around the country and in Baltimore are not only looking for ways to save money, but also save the environment -- and the answer may be in hybrid electric 18-wheelers.With a fleet of about 200 tractor-trailers, Baltimore's Marino Transportation Services, a family-owned trucking and transportation logistics company, felt it was time to look at what it could do to lessen the impact on the environment."We operate in a very carbon-rich environment. Trucking is historically dependent on carbon, but we at MTS feel it doesn't have to be that way going forward," said Joe Marino, sales manager at MTS.After some research, Marino found Hyliion, a company that is bringing hybrid and electric technology to commercial fleets. While Marino was interested in an all-electric big rig, he opted for a hybrid model as his company's routes are too long and loads were too heavy.Hyliion can outfit just about any long-haul truck for hybrid. The technology works with the rear axle generating electricity as the vehicle goes downhill. The electricity is stored in a battery, for which the power can then be used to assist going uphill, and most importantly, it becomes a power station for drivers that sleep in their cabs overnight, saving fuel and cutting down on exhaust."So, instead of idling your motor and emitting all those greenhouse gases for those eight to 10 hours that you're sleeping, we can now use the power that we generated through the trip that day, the power of the truck," Marino said.So, how does it drive? Nick Saban, area manager and driver for MTS, told sister station WBAL it handles like a regular rig."It's pretty seamless. The power is great. You don't feel any lag," Saban said.Being more conscious about the environment can also be good for business. Marino said they're trying to set the standard. Marino said thanks to Hyliion's technology, and a digital log kept inside the cab, MTS is able to help its customers cut their carbon footprints as well."Our customers all have (environmental, social and governance) initiatives to reduce their carbon footprints, and what we can do is with the alien product, we can give them weekly reports that show how many greenhouse gases we have reduced," Marino said.

Prices at the pump continue to skyrocket and break records in some cities across the country. Experts say several factors are to blame, including the rising tensions in Russia and Ukraine.

“I think these prices are ridiculous,” said Joel Gordillo while getting gas Tuesday, paying more than $5 a gallon for premium gas. “I mean, look at this, this is too much.”

According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), the national average for a gallon of gas was $3.53 on Tuesday.

At a gas station in San Diego, a gallon of regular was $4.99 Tuesday; all other options were more than $5.

“I’m just waiting for them to drop down, hopefully soon; the struggle is real, you know, a lot of people can’t pay these gas prices right now,” said Ernesto Tapia, who was gassing up his car.

Unfortunately, some experts don’t think the prices will be going down any time soon.

“February of last year, oil was at about $61 a barrel,” said Marie Montgomery, a spokesperson for AAA of Southern California. She said that number was $96 a barrel on Tuesday. She said since Friday, wholesale gas prices in Southern California have spiked.

Montgomery said three major factors have contributed to the increase in gas prices, one of the most significant- rising tensions between Ukraine and Russia.

“For California specifically, we don’t get any oil or gasoline from Russia, but of course, the tensions are rising oil prices worldwide, and we have to pay those oil prices, so that’s the main issue we’re seeing,” said Montgomery.

Russia is one of the world’s leading oil producers, and if leaders choose to withhold that oil, we’ll likely continue to feel it at the pump.

Montgomery says other reasons we’re seeing high prices are inflation on a national and state level and the state’s early switch to a summer blend of gasoline, which is more expensive to produce than the winter blend.

For now, there appears to be no end in sight, but Montgomery said there are things to consider when trying to save money at the pump.

“It’s more important now than ever to aggressively shop around for the cheapest prices. You can still find many stations out there that are competitive, not great prices, but well below the average,” said Montgomery.

Montgomery said the AAA mobile app will show users the lowest gas prices nearby. “Virtually shop around; make sure you’re not paying that average price,” she said.

This story was first reported by Mimi Elkalla at KGTV in San Diego, California.

On Wednesday California gas prices hit a record high of at least $4.72 a gallon, on average according to AAA's gas prices map.

As CNN Business reported, multiple factors, including a switch to renewable fuel sources, could see gas prices rising nationally. According to AAA, the U.S. national average for regular-grade gasoline was at $3.51. The previous highest recorded average price for regular unleaded was $4.11.

While the Ukraine crisis presents the U.S. with a foreign policy threat, it's also pushing gasoline prices higher at home. And that's a growing political problem for President Joe Biden and fellow Democrats.

With this year's congressional elections in sight, inflation has become an albatross for the party, as the Associated Press reports. Biden wants to put the focus on how much the Russian threat on the Ukraine border is contributing to the gas price rise. That message may be lost on Americans who just see how much fuel is costing at the pump. Republicans are happy to put the blame on the Democrats.

But, gas prices could take a while before they go down, experts warn.

Last year, the White House urged OPEC oil producers to try and find a way to combat rising gasoline prices, Bloomberg reported. There was a push back on increasing supply. Biden announced the release of 50 million barrels of crude oil from stockpiles controlled by the government in Texas and Louisiana salt caverns.

SHELBY, Mt. — A veteran of the oil industry, Curtis Shuck is on a new path these days: cleaning up the mess left behind by orphaned wells.

"I was raised in a family where we had a principle of leave it better than the way you found it, and so I just, I couldn't just fathom that this was left behind and that people thought that it was okay," he said.

Orphaned wells are oil or natural gas wells that have been abandoned by companies for one reason or another. Like a straw stuck into a juice box, these wells have been left open, many for decades, and are leaking toxins, like methane gas, into the environment.

"Many of these have no control at the surface. You see it’s literally just an open hole at the surface," he said, showing an orphaned well from the 1920's in a field outside of Shelby, Montana.

This is why he started the Well Done foundation, a nonprofit that uses donations to find, measure, report and plug up orphaned wells. It's a process that can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

"It was always everybody's dirty little secret. Nobody wanted to talk about it because it was a black eye on the industry, a black eye on the regulatory agencies," said Shuck.

But now, the problem of orphaned wells is becoming too big to be ignored. It’s hard to get exact numbers because the previous owners of the wells are defunct, but the environmental protection agency estimates there are at least 2.1 million wells across the united states.

From California to New York, at least half of the states in America have clusters of abandoned wells.

"Orphan Wells themselves are somewhere between a 10th of a percent and a third of a percent of the U.S. climate footprint," said Adam Peltz, senior attorney with the Environmental Defense Funs.

He said that along with being a leaker of methane gas, orphaned wells are also tied to ground water contamination and air toxins.

"That potentially has public health ramifications impacts on property values, which have impacts downstream on like school funding and stuff like that," he said.

The infrastructure bill that’s been made law has set aside $250 million to plug wells. Peltz says the money will be able to plug 80-100,000 wells. It’s a dent but he believes more needs to be done.

"We need to figure out how to adjust policies so that those wells can be plugged in a timely fashion at the end of their lives," said Peltz.

Meanwhile, Curtis and Well Done have been in communication with different states about best practices to plug orphaned wells, hopefully inspiring others to join the effort to put a cap on this issue.

The Los Angeles City Council has approved a measure to ban new oil and gas wells and phase out existing ones.

The measure would shut down oil and gas fields in the city after a decade of complaints from residents about negative health impacts including nosebleeds, wheezing and coughing. Residents of the city blamed air pollution on the sites.

Activists say that Black and Latino residents of the city are the most affected by pollution from the sites.

The Los Angeles City Council voted on Wednesday for a plan that would phase out new wells over a period of five years. As CNBC reported, over half a million Los Angeles residents live within a quarter-mile of an active oil and gas well, which can release various pollutants including benzene and hydrogen sulfide.

Phaseouts like these are part of what is being seen as a statewide movement in California to move away from fossil fuel production to meet ambitious, but possible climate goals. There's also a strong public health motivation to the movement.

As the Associated Press reported, California's oil and gas regulator proposed in October to ban new oil and gas wells that lie within 3,200 feet of schools, homes, and hospitals.

Existing wells could potentially be subject to new pollution controls.

The price at the pump and in stores is higher these days. The Consumer Price Index, from the end of 2021, shows inflation rose 7% from December 2020 to December 2021, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“The two most important numbers are the headline number and that came in at 7% for the year 2021, the highest number since the early 80s. And the core inflation, the piece excluding food and energy, came at about 5.5%,” Nikolai Roussanov, a finance professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, said.

In the same year, Americans saw a 49.6% price increase in gas and a 12.5% increase in meats, poultry, fish, and eggs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Economists say pandemic stimulus money contributed to some of the inflation, but is only partly to blame.

“When you have this tremendous amount of money coming into the economy, it stimulates aggregate demand. So that’s half of the story here. At the same time, the pandemic completely disrupted this incredibly complex and finely tuned machine we call the supply chain,” Connel Fullenkamp, an economics professor at Duke University, said.

Fullenkamp said inflation has been focused on goods rather than services.

“We have seen wages go up in the past year, but inflation has gone up so much it has eaten up all of those gains,” he said.

“Nobody wants to raise prices, so when you see food prices coming up in the supermarket, it is almost surely some function of rising input costs which are being passed on to consumers as minimally as possible,” Ricky Volpe, an associate professor in the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Agribusiness department, said.

Volpe, who used to conduct food price research for the USDA, said it’s also important to look at the context of the numbers.

“Retail food prices today still remain lower in real terms than where they were a generation or two ago. Food prices have not skyrocketed relative to the U.S. dollar,” Volpe explained. “A lot of the major price increases that we’ve seen in the supermarkets pertain to more value added processed, ready-to-eat foods.”

People may want to consider what food prices are being compared to.

“Gas prices plummeted early in the pandemic. So for that reason, we should caveat some of the gas price inflation numbers saying that prices fell artificially at the start of the pandemic because of low demand,” Patrick De Haan, the head of petroleum analysis at gas price app GasBuddy, said. “We’ve never seen gas prices plummet so far and then jump so much in the course of a year and a half or so. But of course we’ve never lived through a pandemic and that's what's driving these price differences.”

Americans can expect to spend more of their money as demand and supply level out. Experts say it could take a while, depending on the commodity.

“I see it as lasting until the end of this year before things really start to get back to normal and those shipping costs and supply chain issues start to get really resolved. That's going to keep inflation higher than normal,” Fullenkamp said.

“The spring could be a very busy time, prices could surge, but then we do see some relief towards the end of the year as things slowly normalize back to where we were pre-pandemic in terms of oil production,” De Haan said.

Related video above: The president's options are limited to help gas prices

Gas prices are skyrocketing, and Americans want to save at the pump. That plays right into the hands of Costco, BJ's Wholesale Club and Sam's Club.

The national gas price average jumped to $3.41 a gallon Friday, according to AAA, 61% higher than the average at the same time last year. The Biden administration has called for an investigation into whether oil and gas companies acted illegally to push up prices.

The spike has pushed more shoppers to rely on these chains to fill up their tanks, say the companies, retail analysts and fuel experts.

Gas prices at warehouse clubs can be as much as 30 cents lower than traditional gas stations, and the chains offer members coupons to use in their stores when they fill up. Gasoline sales at the warehouse clubs are an important part of their business and draw customers inside.

"People are seeking out the clubs because of the gas," said Michael Baker, a retail analyst at D.A. Davidson. "It's U.S. consumers' nature to go out of their way for lower gas prices."

Costco, for example, is typically 20 cents a gallon below the market average, according to Tom Kloza, the global head of energy analysis at IHS Markit's Oil Price Information Service. BJ's says it's 10 cents below average.

These companies are "winners when gasoline prices go skyward," said Kloza.

Costco, Sam's Club and BJ's want you to fill up your tank in their parking lots and then go stock up on giant jugs of ketchup, boxes of snacks and clothing. (And why not buy a flat-screen TV or a new couch while you're at it?)

Their gas stations give these warehouse stores an advantage that many retail competitors can't match.

Gas makes up around 10%, $20 billion annually, of Costco's overall sales and 9% of BJ's. Walmart, which owns Sam's Club, does not disclose what portion of its sales come from gas.

Gas is a notoriously low-margin business, but retailers can make money from selling huge volumes of gas -- even while charging much less than independent gas stations, said Kloza, adding that it's not unusual for sales at a Costco location to reach up to 1 million gallons a month compared to an average of 80,000 gallons a month at typical gas stations.

Despite their big-brand names, the vast majority of Exxon, Chevron, BP and Shell gas stations are independently owned, so they aren't able to make a volume play like wholesalers do. Although wholesalers are able to make a profit on gas, they're not making much: Costco, for example, reported that gasoline has a lower profit margin than the rest of its business. Rising gas prices typically help Costco's sales, but hurt its profits.

"When there are inflationary pressures and prices are going up, people look to save on gas," said Richard Galanti, Costco's chief financial officer.

For every 100 people who come to Costco to fill up on gas, more than half go shop inside afterwards, he added.

Gas sales at BJ's Wholesale Club jumped 20% during its most recent quarter ending Oct. 30 compared with the same time a year ago.

BJ's is growing market share in gasoline "in leaps and bounds," CEO Robert Eddy said on a call with analysts Thursday. When gas prices hit over $3 a gallon, "members love us" and shift their gas spending to the club.

Gas discounts are a tool Walmart uses to encourage customers to sign up for Walmart+ memberships, which also offer free shipping and discounts on prescriptions.

Walmart said on Tuesday that it's actively trying to keep gas prices down to attract customers worried about how much they're paying at the pump, especially as federal stimulus benefits wane.

"Gas prices are a concern... They're up dramatically versus a year ago," Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said on an earnings call. "The customers had money [then]. And at some point, that's going to come to an end."

TOOLE COUNTY, Mont. – About 30 miles south of the Canadian border, Well Done Foundation chairman Curtis Shuck meets his crew at an old oil well.

Well Done Foundation is a nonprofit that was formed specifically for identifying and plugging abandoned oil and gas wells.

Abandoned oil and gas wells, also called ‘orphaned’ wells, have been relinquished by companies that once used them. Well Done Foundation adopts the wells through an agreement to plug them up.

“So the well that we were on today, the Anderson #5 was drilled in 1926, and produced viable oil for maybe seventy of those years,” Shuck said.

Shuck says wells will transfer from operator to operator until the last person standing is out of business because the well is no longer commercially viable. He was inspired to start the foundation after discovering so many orphaned wells in Toole County.

“Well, you see one and you start to see more," Shuck said. "And I was literally horrified and embarrassed as being in the oil and gas industry for nearly 30 years. I just I couldn't believe that in any universe that it would be OK to leave something like that behind for somebody else to deal with.”

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, there are millions of orphaned wells across the U.S.

A percentage of those wells, like Anderson #5, are considered ‘super emitters’ because they’re releasing so much methane. Steven Hamburg is the chief scientist with Environmental Defense Fund.

“Methane is a potent, short lived greenhouse gas, which is responsible for more than one quarter of the warming we're experiencing today,” Hamburg said.

Hamburg says methane needs to be dealt with quickly because it could cause more warming than carbon dioxide in the next couple decades.

“Methane is going to drive the climate changes we see in my lifetime and my daughters to a large degree," Hamburg said. "And carbon dioxide will dominate the changes that we see over our grandchildren's grandchildren's lifetime.”

The sources of methane emissions include raising livestock, managing waste, and producing fossil fuels – like oil and gas. At the annual Climate Change Conference, more than a hundred countries signed a pledge to reduce methane emissions from human sources by 30%.

When it comes to plugging orphaned wells, Shuck says it hasn’t been a cheap endeavor. It’s been paid for through corporate sponsors, individual donors, fundraisers, and even out-of-pocket expenses.

“We can make a big impact one well at a time, every little bit counts,” Shuck said.

So far, since November of 2019, the Well Done Foundation has plugged 14 wells with cement – creating approximately 40 jobs along the way. And that number will continue to grow as Well Done scales up.  

“We're opening up an entire new frontier, if you would, in the measurement and monitoring space,” Shuck said.

Shuck says the oil and gas industry is in a state of transition, and simply needs to adapt. Well Done Foundation has big plans for 2022 expanding into more states like Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and California.

“Let's leave this place better than the way we found it," he said. "Let's do our part and really lean in and we can make a difference and we are making a difference one well at a time."

 

CINCINNATI —

Gas prices have shot up at a ridiculous rate. The numbers are busting budgets for families all across the area.

Since you're going to be paying a lot at the pump for the foreseeable future, why not try to cut costs when you can? WLWT's Mike Dardis took a look at all those fuel programs available, to see which one will save you the most money.

If we just look at his daily commute from Mason to Cincinnati, the prices at the pump are all over the map. On this particular day, the UDF in Mason is $3.14 a gallon. Just a mile down the road, $3.24 at the Sunoco near Kings Island. BP Montgomery is $3.27 a gallon. The UDF off Dana Avenue is only $3.01. It was $3.09 at a station in Evanston and $3.29 at a Shell in OTR, 28 cents more than that $3.01 number we saw off Dana.

As you're seeing, gas prices are the highest they've been in seven years — up 40% since the start of 2021.

That's frustrating enough, but to make matters worse, many of you are losing out on hundreds of dollars a year. To claim that savings, all you have to do is what you're already doing. Dardis will show you, by crunching numbers and comparing some fuel programs.

Speedway has its "Speedy Rewards." Exxon Mobil Rewards is another option. Shell just calls it a fuel rewards program and UDF has U-Drive.

All of them save you money. But three others, which are easy to understand, actually save you more.

The average American household uses two cars, 17 gallons of gas in a tank and fills up once a week. So let's use those numbers to help measure the cost-cutting.

BPme is a solid program offered by BP. As long as you spend $100 a month on fuel at BP,
you get 5 cents off a gallon every time you stop, with perks that can make it 4 times that much. So, 5 cents, times 17 gallons is 85 cents, times 4 for the perks means you save $3.40 a week for one car and $6.80 for two.

Over 52 weeks, BPme saves the average family $353.60.

Costco is not a fuel program, it's obviously a shopping club. It doesn't pay to join for just the gas. However, if you decide to join for the shopping, the gas savings are hard to beat.

On average, Costco fuel is 22 cents cheaper per gallon than other gas stations. Twenty-two cents times 17 gallons is $3.74 for your week fill up. Two cars would mean you saved $7.48. Over a 52 week year, that's $388.96 you kept in your wallet.

Slightly better than BP is Kroger, which is gas king in Greater Cincinnati. But only if you always shop there. If you spend $1,000 a month on groceries (which is average), you'll rack up enough fuel points to earn the top savings prize of $1 dollar off a gallon, up to 35 gallons. That $35 in savings monthly is $420 bucks a year!

Thirty-one dollars in change better than Costco and $66.40 better than BP.

Kroger shoppers, sometimes they offer you 20 cents or 30 cents off a gallon, but it's basically capped at $35 for the month. So you can take the discounts as you go, or save up for the big "dollar off a gallon" haul.

There's also the GasBuddy app which you can use like Waze or Google Maps. You just plug in where you're going and it'll give you the price of every gas station along your route.

Bottom line is it pays to use at least one fuel program, otherwise, you're literally leaving money on the table. Kill two birds with one stone if you can.

In other words, if you're already shopping at Kroger, get gas at Kroger. If you're already shopping at Costco, get gas at Costco. That way you're saving money at the pump and not driving all over to find cheaper gas.

EDGEWOOD, Md. —

The scene investigators called a "violent gas explosion" in Edgewood, Maryland, came into focus Monday morning as cleanup efforts and the investigation began.

One person was hospitalized after a gas explosion destroyed a house Sunday night at the intersection in Edgewood, fire officials told sister station WBAL.

Investigators from the Maryland State Fire Marshal's Office wrapped up their investigation at the scene shortly after noon Monday. Investigators told WBAL this was a gas explosion and Baltimore Gas and Electric is not at fault. The area of origin was within the kitchen, where investigators are focusing on the stove.

"I saw the flames shooting over the top of the house on the corner, and the more I walked up, I realized what had happened," said Donna Dulski, a neighbor. "(It's) quite upsetting, and I would have bet my next paycheck that nobody would have made it out of that house alive."

"I was about ready to fall asleep and suddenly I heard this noise I have never heard before. I mean, it was thunderous," said Rick Dulski, a neighbor.

"It was big. It was deep. It was very scary. The lights went off immediately," said Alicia Larkins, a neighbor.

Henry Schwartzman also felt the blast. He lives next door to the home that exploded.

"It knocked me off the sofa and things started to fall down. It got black all of a sudden after the hit," he said. "I came to the door and I (saw) flames and smoke."

As he got the process started to get the damage to his home repaired, Schwartzman was thinking about his next-door neighbor who survived the blast.

"He worked for the Postal Service. He was going to retire in two months," Schwartzman said.

"We're just praying right now that he recovers from his injuries," Donna Dulski said.

"Thank God he was alive," Larkins said.

Investigators said the homeowner was pulled from the rubble in the back of the house by a good Samaritan, who also pulled a dog from the rubble. Investigators want to speak with the good Samaritan to get more details. The dog is being treated by an emergency vet and a second dog is being treated by animal control.

"It's a miracle that he survived such a violent explosion," Deputy State Fire Marshal Oliver Alkire said.

Investigators said the homeowner is in critical but stable condition at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center for treatment of upwards of third-degree burns mostly to his upper body.

FRANKSVILLE — Three Republican Wisconsin Congressmen joined the backlash against the White House's decision to halt the Keystone pipeline project, claiming that "hundreds" of Wisconsin workers are losing their jobs as the massive and controversial construction project ground to a halt this week.

The decision to revoke the permit allowing construction of Keystone XL was one of the first executive orders signed by incoming President Joe Biden, leading to praise from environmental groups but heavy criticism from proponents of the oil and gas project, including three of Wisconsin's representatives in Congress.

Friday's press briefing at a Michels Corporation jobsite, a national construction contractor headquartered in Brownsville, Wis., was attended by Republican Reps. Bryan Steil, Glenn Grothman and newly elected Scott Fitzgerald. Michels is a subcontractor of TC, the Calgary-based company building the pipeline.

Watch the press briefing here:

Over 1,000 jobs connected to the Keystone project will be eliminated in the coming weeks, Keystone XL President Richard Prior said earlier this week. "Hundreds" of those jobs being eliminated are held by Wisconsin workers, the Republican Congressmen claimed Friday.

"I find his decision disgusting. Hundreds of Wisconsin workers lost their jobs because of what Joe Biden did. He needs to reconsider this action and put Wisconsin workers back to work," Rep. Steil told reporters.

Andrew Burton

A general manager for Michels at the briefing also said that hundreds of workers have been laid off, and "a lot of them live in Wisconsin."

The Keystone pipeline was to stretch 1,700-miles between Alberta, Canada and the Texas Gulf Coast, cutting through the states of Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma. The pipeline was planned to carry about 800,000 barrels of oil a day.

Rep. Grothman focused on the potential repercussions of the decision on the U.S.'s largest trading partners and neighbors, Canada and Mexico.

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"It is so important we have good relations with the both of them," Grothman said. "I'm sure Canada thought this was a done deal. This is part of their economic development. And on day one, Biden comes out of the chute and pops Canada right in the face. Amateur night at the White House, I'll tell you that."

The pipeline was first proposed in 2008, and soon became a symbol of the tensions between economic development that relies on traditional sources of energy like gas and oil, and the effort to curb fossil fuel emissions causing climate change.

Former President Barack Obama shot down the proposal for the pipeline. Former President Donald Trump revived it.

Rep. Fitzgerald used his several minutes at the press briefing to call for a legislative push to revoke President Biden's executive order shutting the pipeline down.

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"I'm hopeful not only by being here today but I think other elected officials - whether at the state legislative level or in Congress - that is where the answer is to reverse this," he said. Fitzgerald also called on Democratic lawmakers in Wisconsin to urge the White House to reverse the decision.

Critics of the pipeline say that operations in Alberta's oil sands increase greenhouse gas emissions and threaten the province's environment. But Rep. Steil said those fears are overblown.

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"The environmental concerns are very misleading to a lot of people," Steil said. "The oil and gas are still going to be transported into the United States of America. It's going to be done by rail - a less efficient way of moving gas, with greater risk to the environment from rail accidents."

Tribal and environmental groups applauded Biden's decision.

“This is a vindication of 10 years defending our waters and treaty rights from this tar sands carbon bomb," Dallas Goldtooth, a member of the Mdewakanton Dakota and Dine nations, told The Guardian. "I applaud President Biden for recognizing how dangerous KXL is for our communities and climate and I look forward to similar executive action to stop DAPL and Line 3 based on those very same dangers."

Outside of the statements from the Wisconsin legislators, it is unconfirmed how many Wisconsin workers will lose their jobs in connection to the cancellation of the Keystone pipeline.

This article was written by Jackson Danbeck for WTMJ.

The Colonial Pipeline launched the restart of its operations Wednesday evening following a six-day shutdown caused by a ransomware attack, but the pipeline's operators warned it will take several days for service to return to normal.

"Some markets served by Colonial Pipeline may experience, or continue to experience, intermittent service interruptions during the start-up period," the pipeline company said in a statement.

The Colonial Pipeline will move as much gasoline, diesel and jet fuel "as is safely possible and will continue to do so until markets return to normal," the company said.

The restart can't come soon enough. The shutdown sparked panic-buying and hoarding that has overwhelmed gas stations in the Southeast. A significant percentage of gas stations in Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina are without fuel, according to GasBuddy, which tracks fuel demand, prices and outages.

The Colonial Pipeline took itself offline Friday after suffering a ransomware attack. The 5,500-mile pipeline is responsible for carrying fuel from refineries along the Gulf Coast to New Jersey. It provides nearly half the gasoline and diesel consumed by the East Coast, making it perhaps America's most important pipeline.

Oil industry executives warned Wednesday that gas hoarding by Americans during the shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline is worsening the supply crunch.

"This situation is now being exacerbated by panic buying and hoarding," Frank Macchiarola, an executive at the American Petroleum Institute, said during a press briefing.

Executives also called on the White House to grant waivers that would allow foreign ships to send fuel to the East Coast to meet skyrocketing demand following the shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline.

The restart should begin to help ease the shortages.

"It means the worst is over in terms of the hysteria that I've called GuzzleGate," Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at the Oil Price Information Service, told CNN Business in an email.

Kloza said the first priority is to restart Line 1, which pumps gasoline from Texas and Louisiana to Greensboro, North Carolina.

"The crest of the outages comes perhaps tomorrow or Friday," said Kloza, adding Friday is always the busiest day of the week for gasoline sales.

While the shortage should resolve fairly quickly, "motorists could help the situation by holding off for a day or two to let stations refuel faster," Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said in an email.

"Now finally Americans can have some peace of mind that gasoline, diesel and jet fuel will begin flowing to affected areas once again," De Haan said.

Still, the issue won't resolve immediately.

"The restarting of the Colonial Pipeline is the beginning of the end of the crisis, not the end of the end of the supply crunch," Michael Tran, managing director of global energy strategy for RBC Capital Markets, said in an email. "With an operational pipeline, the race to logistically replenish regional and localized gas stations is the next step."

As the Colonial Pipeline starts to resume service, "our primary focus remains safety," the company said in its Wednesday statement.

"As part of this startup process, Colonial will conduct a comprehensive series of pipeline safety assessments in compliance with all Federal pipeline safety requirements," it said.

The company also expressed thanks to the White House for its "leadership and collaboration," along with the Department of Energy, Federal Bureau of Investigation and other government agencies.

In recent days, Biden administration officials privately voiced frustration with what they see as Colonial Pipeline's weak security protocols and a lack of preparation that could have allowed the ransomware group DarkSide to carry out the attack, officials familiar with the government's initial investigation into the incident told CNN Tuesday.

In the weeks leading up to the attack, Colonial Pipeline had been looking to hire a cybersecurity manager.

In the wake of the attack, cybersecurity experts said, Colonial likely took all of its systems offline in order to isolate what the bad actors had accessed and ensure they weren't able to move into other parts of the company's network.

People briefed on the matter also told CNN that the company halted operations because its billing system was compromised and they were concerned they wouldn't be able to determine how much to bill customers for fuel they received.

One person familiar with the response said the billing system is central to the unfettered operation of the pipeline. That is part of the reason getting it back up and running has taken time, this person said.

Pressure at the gas pump is building in Kentucky despite the fact that a major pipeline that was shut down doesn't even run through the state.

The Colonial Pipeline supplies nearly half the gasoline and diesel to the east coast. It had to be shut down in the wake of a cyberattack, causing several gas stations across multiple states to run low, or completely out, of gas.

Among the states directly affected are North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Florida. But on Wednesday evening, pipeline operations were already back in motion.

But still, parts of Kentucky are seeing long lines at gas stations Wednesday. At least one gas station in Louisville had a complete outage.

Lynda Lambert, spokesperson for AAA, said this can mainly be attributed to panic buying, and a little to trickle down.

She said as far as supplies go, Kentucky has plenty of gas to go around.

“Gasoline is plentiful in the U.S. and commonwealth,” Lambert said. She said it's not a supply issue, but rather a delivery and distribution issue.

Kentucky gets some of its gas trucked in from other states, like Tennessee -- which uses the Colonial Pipeline. So this may be a factor, but again, she says people buying over fear of a shortage is what is really exacerbating the issue.

"One of the most important points to this story, we are urging people not to panic buy and make the situation worse," she said.

Her advice to Kentuckians: "Just get (gas) when you need it, and there will be enough for everyone to go around."

If you need more incentive not to unnecessarily fill up, Kentucky's gas prices have soared in the past week with one of the highest increases across the country.

Colonial Pipeline officials said it could take several days for product delivery supply chain to return to normal, so be patient.

One of the largest U.S. fuel pipelines remained largely paralyzed Monday after a ransomware cyberattack forced the temporary shutdown of all operations late last week — an incident that laid bare vulnerabilities in the country's aging energy infrastructure.

The victim of the attack, Colonial Pipeline, is a company that transports more than 100 million gallons of gasoline and other fuel daily from Houston to the New York Harbor.

Over the weekend, the pipeline operator began working to develop a restart plan for its pipeline system, and was able to start operations for some of its ancillary lines. On Monday, Colonial acknowledged it will take time to restore all of its systems and said hopes to substantially restore operational service by the end of the week.

Here's what to know about the attack:

What is a ransomware attack and did this happen out of the blue?

Ransomware locks out the rightful user of a computer or computer network and holds it hostage until the victim pays a fee. Ransomware gangs have also threatened to leak sensitive information in order to get victims to meet their demands.

The Colonial Pipeline attack comes amid rising concerns over the cybersecurity vulnerabilities in America's critical infrastructure following a spate of recent incidents, and after the Biden administration last month launched an effort to beef up cybersecurity in the nation's power grid, calling for industry leaders to install technologies that could thwart attacks on the electricity supply.

It follows a string of other ransomware attacks and other high-profile and deeply damaging cyber breaches, including the SolarWinds related supply chain breach and the Microsoft Exchange Server hack — both tied to nation state actors.

While the latest incident is believed to be tied to a criminal group, it underscores the cybersecurity risk to critical infrastructure and threatens to impact gas prices ahead of the summer travel season.

Senior White House officials repeatedly said Monday their roles in addressing the latest ransomware incident were limited because Colonial Pipeline is a private company, even though it controls the gasoline supply to most of the eastern U.S.

"This weekend's events put the spotlight on the fact that our nation's critical infrastructure is largely owned and operated by private sector companies," said Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, the White House domestic security adviser. "When those companies are attacked, they serve as the first line of defense and we depend on the effectiveness of their defenses."

Anne Neuberger, the top official responsible for cybersecurity on the National Security Council, said Colonial Pipeline had not asked for "cyber-support" from the federal government but that federal officials were ready and "standing by" to provide assistance if asked.

Who is responsible?

The FBI confirmed Monday that a criminal group originating from Russia, named "DarkSide," is responsible for the Colonial pipeline cyberattack.

"The FBI confirms that the Darkside ransomware is responsible for the compromise of the Colonial Pipeline networks. We continue to work with the company and our government partners on the investigation," the FBI said in a statement.

The group posted a notice on the dark web that their motivation was "only to make money" and claiming it did not carry out the attack on behalf of a foreign government, according to a cyber counterintelligence firm.

"I can confirm that (the posting) came from the DarkSide victim data leak site on the dark web," Randy Pargman, vice president of Threat Hunting & Counterintelligence at Binary Defense told CNN, adding that his firm has verified it.

DarkSide typically targets non-Russian speaking countries, a former senior cyber official told CNN.

Darkside is "relatively new" in terms of ransomware groups, according to Allan Liska, senior security architect, Recorded Future, who said the group has been around since August of 2020, but "they're fairly aggressive" and have "grown very quickly."

The group is part of what's called the "ransomware as a service" trend — they "rent out their infrastructure to other bad guys," he added.

"You pay a fee to join their service. And then the main threat actor gets a cut of every successful ransomware payment that you make," Liska said.

Neuberger said Monday that there does not appear to be any ties between "Darkside" and the Russian government, though the U.S. intelligence community continues to assess the situation.

Asked if the group has ties to Russia or any other Eastern European criminals, Neuberger said the current belief is that Darkside is working as a criminal actor.

"At this time we assess that Darkside is a criminal actor, but that's certainly something our intelligence community is looking into," Neuberger said at the White House press briefing on Monday.

President Joe Biden echoed that point Monday, with an additional caveat: "There is evidence that the actor's ransomware is in Russia. They have some responsibility to deal with this."

Are ransomware attacks a new problem?

Simply put, no.

The Justice Department said last month that 2020 was "the worst year to date for ransomware attacks," and experts warn that they are only becoming more frequent.

On average, ransomware demands exceeded $100,000 last year and in some cases, were up to tens of millions of dollars, according to the department.

"Our critical infrastructure sectors are the modern day battlefield and cyber space is the great equalizer. Hacker groups can essentially attack with little individual attribution and virtually no consequence. With over 85% of all infrastructure owned and operated by the private sector, significant investment and attention must be placed on hardening key critical systems," according to Brian Harrell, former assistant secretary for infrastructure protection at the Department of Homeland Security.

"I anticipate more attacks like this happening in the future. A key lesson here is that while technology and automation is good, we must also have the ability to efficiently operate manually as well. Attacks will happen, but how quick can you recover and restore critical services?" he told CNN.

In recent months, ransomware attackers have increasingly targeted schools, hospitals, city governments and other victims that are perceived to have weak security or an ability to pay.

Just last week, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas warned of the staggering financial losses incurred from ransomware and acceleration of these types of attacks over the past year.

"The threat is not tomorrow's threat, but it is upon us," he said at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event.

Mayorkas has been outspoken on the threat from ransomware in recent weeks, calling it an "existential threat" to businesses at the event.

More than $350 million dollars in victim funds were paid as a result of ransomware in the past year, and the rate of ransomware attacks increased over the prior year by more than 300%, he said.

Do victims usually pay the ransom?

While it varies from case to case, the FBI's standing guidance is that victims should not pay a ransom.

"The FBI does not support paying a ransom in response to a ransomware attack. Paying a ransom doesn't guarantee you or your organization will get any data back. It also encourages perpetrators to target more victims and offers an incentive for others to get involved in this type of illegal activity," according to the FBI website.

However, multiple sources have previously told CNN that the FBI will, at times, privately tell victims they understand if they feel the need to pay, something senior White House officials acknowledged on Monday, saying "companies are in a difficult position."

Asked whether Colonial had paid a ransom to the outlet blamed for the attack, senior White House officials demurred.

"That is a private sector decision, and the administration has not offered further advice at this time. Given the rise in ransomware, that is one area we're looking at now to say what should be the government's approach to ransomware actors and to ransoms overall," Neuberger said.

What does this attack mean for anyone who drives or flies?

The cyber incident could have economic consequences due to the importance of the Colonial Pipeline. The pipeline delivers nearly half the diesel and gasoline consumed on the East Coast. And it provides jet fuel to major airports, many of which hold limited supplies on site.

RBC Capital Markets warned that depending upon how long it lasts, "the supply shock could leave the region with widespread fuel shortages."

The shutdown could extend a recent jump in gasoline prices — especially if the outage persists — piling on the pain for drivers as the seasonal peak in demand approaches.

"The number of days that the line is out of service is critical," Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis for the Oil Price Information Service, which tracks gas prices at 140,000 U.S. stations, told CNN Business.

Limited supply could mean higher fuel prices for motorists during the spring driving season. U.S. gasoline futures for May delivery gained 1.5% on Monday, rising to $2.16 a gallon. Prices had spiked as much as 4% in early trading.

The national average pump price of regular gas stands at $2.97 a gallon, according to AAA, up more than 60% from a year ago when prices and demand were bottoming out. The national average could surpass $3 a gallon this summer, and go even higher if hurricanes hit the Gulf Coast or if there are additional supply outages.

The attack could also trigger challenges for jet fuel deliveries, Kloza said. Many major East Coast airports maintain only three to five days worth of inventory, so a two to five day suspension of a pipeline that in some cases moves fuel directly to major airports — such as Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport — can have a dramatic impact.

What is the Biden administration doing about it?

Biden administration officials worked urgently Monday to ascertain the scope and fallout of a ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline, which supplies much of the eastern United States its gasoline.

The White House has already stood up an emergency working group to contend with potential energy supply issues and loosened rules on petroleum shipping on highways.

But the broader issue of security gaps in the nation's critical systems — components of which are decades old — remains a serious question for the White House, which is finalizing an executive order meant to better respond to cyberattacks.

The order was written and circulated primarily as a response to the earlier SolarWinds attack, which allowed Russian hackers to access systems across federal government agencies. Yet the draft order applies only to federal contractors, meaning it would not have applied to Colonial Pipeline, the latest company to be targeted.

Mayorkas also said DHS is also exploring developing a grant program that can reach enterprises that otherwise are outside of existing grant programs, "to really raise the bar of cybersecurity throughout the country."

Additionally, the Justice Department has created a new task force dedicated to rooting out and responding to the growing threat of ransomware, according to an agency memo obtained by CNN last month.

The new task force will unify efforts across the federal government to pursue and disrupt ransomware attackers, according to the memo. Actions could include everything from "takedowns of servers used to spread ransomware to seizures of these criminal enterprises' ill-gotten gains," the memo continued.