Pilot sends gas to help North Carolina schools

Pilot Travel Centers will ship gasoline from a storage facility in Knoxville into Western North Carolina, at the request of U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler. The shipment will allow public schools in North Carolina to remain open.

David Dobbins, Pilot's director of supply and distribution, said a tanker truck holding 8,000 gallons of fuel will leave a Middlebrook Pike storage facility and head to Asheville on Thursday. This gas will fuel the area's school buses.

Dobbins said Shuler's office is coordinating the arrangements.

"There is virtually no gas in Western North Carolina," said James A. Haslam III, CEO of Pilot. "Congressman Shuler contacted us and said schools would have to be shut down because there is not enough gas to run the school buses. We agreed to help by sending over some of the gas we have here in Knoxville."

Dobbins said that Pilot will send another 8,000 gallons into the same area on Friday if necessary. He said sending the gas to North Carolina will not cause Pilot to run out of gas at its Knoxville locations.

Congressman Shuler, a former star quarterback for the University of Tennessee football team, has a close relationship with Pilot and the Haslam family.