Odd-Even Gas Rationing Begins Friday

Ten days after Hurricane Sandy slammed Long Island, a gas rationing system is set to go into effect Friday at 5 a.m., Nassau and Suffolk county officials have announced. 

The temporary policy requires gas stations in both counties to sell fuel only to drivers with vehicles bearing license plate numbers that correlate in odd/even terms with the day of the month, according to a press release from Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone's office. 

Here are the details from the release:

• Drivers with license plates ending in an even number will be able to purchase fuel only on even-numbered days and drivers with license plate numbers that end in an odd number will be able to purchase fuel only on odd-numbered days. 
• License plates such as vanity plates that do not display numbers will be considered odd-numbered plates. 
• Out of state plates will be subject to the same requirements.
• This policy does not apply to commercial vehicles, taxi or limousine fleets or emergency fleets, nor does it apply to handheld gas canisters. 

Friday, being the 9th day of the month, is an odd-numbered day. Zero is considered an even number. 

“This temporary fuel policy will ease the challenges residents of the bi-county region are experiencing in the aftermath of the storm,” Bellone said. “Our citizens travel between Nassau and Suffolk without regard to county borders and it only makes sense that we adopt a regional solution. I thank my counterpart Nassau County Executive [Ed] Mangano for working with me to adopt this policy.”

The same system will also be implemented in New York City Friday. A dozen counties in New Jersey have been operating under odd-even rationing since last Saturday. 

The fuel shortage was exacerbated by the nor'easter that hit the region as a terminal that pumps about 4.5 million gallons of gas a day into the NYC and Long Island area suffered a "partial failure" due to power outages late Wednesday night, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. 

"While power was restored this morning, there was an interruption in the fuel supply chain to those regions," the governor said in a release. 

Do you agree with the gas rationing policy? Let us know in the comments.