The daily business briefing: September 19, 2016

Gas prices rise in Southeast after pipeline spill, oil prices lift stocks ahead of Fed meeting, and more

A gas pump
(Image credit: Miguel Villagran/Getty Images)

1. Pipeline rupture sends gas prices up in Southeast

Gas prices jumped by about 10 percent in much of the Southeast over the weekend after a major gasoline pipeline ruptured in central Alabama. The Colonial Pipeline network, which transports 1.3 million barrels a day from Houston refineries to distribution centers across the Southeast, spilled up to 336,000 gallons of fuel upstream from a national wildlife refuge, but the environmental damage was minimal because a drought has left stream beds in the area dry, limiting the flow of the gas downstream. "We really did bypass the bullet," said Myra Crawford, executive director at Cahaba Riverkeeper. "It could have been horrible."

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.