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Truckers who hauled gasoline to Texas last week from Florida may run the same route in reverse next week as Hurricane Irma bears down on the Sunshine State.

Long lines at fuel refineries are shortening, but the crush in demand for fuel caused by Hurricane Harvey is still putting pressure on fleets that serve the petroleum industry.

MIAMI — Florida residents picked store shelves clean and long lines formed at gas pumps Sept. 6 as Hurricane Irma, a Category 5 monster with potentially catastrophic winds of 185 mph, steamed toward the Sunshine State and a possible direct hit on the Miami metropolitan area of nearly 6 million people.

The U.S. average retail price of diesel vaulted 15.3 cents to $2.758 a gallon — its largest jump in 6½ years — as demand spiked while refineries in the Houston area reported difficulty restarting operations after the stubborn flood left by Hurricane Harvey.

Driver hours-of-service rules are being relaxed in 26 states and the District of Columbia under a state of emergency announced by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on Aug. 31.

As much as 10% of U.S. fracking work could be delayed after Hurricane Harvey ripped through southeast Texas, soaking thousands of miles of dirt roads snaking through one of the nation’s busiest oilfields.

DALLAS — Drivers lined up at gas pumps in parts of Texas Aug. 31 as more stations ran out of gas and prices rose steeply in response to Hurricane Harvey’s impact on Gulf Coast refineries.

Four California senators have called for significantly increasing state funding to curtail pollutants from trucks and buses.

The U.S. government is releasing half-a-million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to a Gulf Coast refinery as the region’s refining industry works to recover from the devastation of Harvey.