People line up for gasoline outside the entrance of Holland Tunnel in Jersey City, New Jersey, October 31, 2012. 
 
 NEW YORK | 
 
 NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York taxi and car service companies started pulling vehicles off the road on Thursday as the fuel crunch deepened, with the vast majority of storm-hit service stations in the greater New York area now out of gasoline or without power. 
 
 Outages and fuel shortages have forced many gasoline stations to shut, and now threaten efforts in New York and New Jersey to get back to business after Hurricane Sandy. 
 
 Large numbers of homes and businesses that have lost power are also reliant on gasoline- or diesel-run generators, including many of the Wall Street banks in lower Manhattan. 
 
 "We've had to cancel a lot of cars today because there's not enough gas," said Joue Balulu, a partner at Fone-A-Car in Brooklyn. 
 
 "It's affecting everybody. Our drivers have to go out to try and find gas." 
 
 Much of lower Manhattan remains without power after an explosion at a Consolidated Edison Inc substation on the East River during the storm. Con Edison said on Thursday it could be another two days until electricity is restored. 
 
 Across New York's five boroughs and the northern suburbs of Westchester, Con Edison said 659,400 homes and businesses still had no power. 
 
 "In New York City over 50 percent of service stations are not able to sell gasoline and it could be up to 75 percent," said Ralph Bombardiere, executive director of the New York State Association of Service Stations and Repair Shops. 
 
 "New York City (gasoline delivery) terminals have power problems. For the individual stations, if they have product they don't have power and many, if they have power, don't have any product." 
 
 In Manhattan, police helped to monitor cars at a Hess Corp garage on 10th Avenue and 44th Street to stop people cutting in line. 
 
 Zipcar Inc, a car-sharing company that rents out vehicles at an hourly or daily rate, said members late in returning cars in New York because of traffic or fuel shortages would not face the usual charges. 
 
 "Any members who are willing to wait in line for fuel, we're willing to waive any late fees," said Dan Curtin, Zipcar's vice president of fleet operations in Boston. The firm is offering members in New York and New Jersey discounts until Friday. 
 
 On Wednesday, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he would restrict car traffic coming into Manhattan to vehicles carrying three or more passengers until Friday in an attempt to cut congestion in the city. 
 
 MTA HAS FUEL 
 
 The New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which on Thursday restarted a limited subway service, said it had supplies to keep its buses running. 
 
 "We are not having any issues with fuel at this point," MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz said. 
 
 "We are still getting deliveries of fuel to our depots," he added. 
 
 The MTA has its own fuel tanks, but it is unclear whether it will be able to receive new supplies as many terminals and refineries in the region suffered storm damage. 
 
 In New Jersey, power company Public Service Enterprise Group Inc (PSEG) said 780,000 homes and businesses were still without electricity, about 35 percent of its customers, down from 1.7 million impacted at the peak. On Wednesday, gasoline retailer associations said more than 80 percent of service stations in New Jersey were shut. 
 
 At 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT) on Thursday on Route 18 in East Brunswick, New Jersey, a Hess facility was the only gas station open for miles. A line of more than 100 cars waited in the highway's southbound left lane, while dozens of residents on foot lined up on the sidewalk, holding plastic gas cans. 
 
 Fuel supplies into New York and New Jersey are being choked off in several ways: two refineries that make up a quarter of the region's gasoline and diesel capacity are idle because of power outages or flooding; the New York Harbor waterway that imports a fifth of the area's fuel is still closed to traffic, and major import terminals are damaged and powerless. 
 
 The main pipeline bringing gasoline and diesel from the U.S. Gulf Coast refining hub, which pumps 15 percent of the East Coast's fuel, also remains shut. 
 
 In Hoboken, a New Jersey town on the Hudson River, gas has become an especially precious commodity since it can be used to power the pumping of sewage water out of basements and homes. 
 
 At one building, a resident went door to door until she found a neighbor willing to siphon gas from his car to fuel the pumps. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Melanie Hicken and Joseph Ax in New Jersey; Editing by Dale Hudson) ||||| 19 Gallery: Long gas lines across N.J. after Hurricane Sandy 
 
 By Amy Brittain and Richard Khavkine/The Star-Ledger 
 
 Tempers ran short across New Jersey on Wednesday as gas lines grew and grew in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. 
 
 The biggest problem, experts said, is that consumers are panicking and rushing to the pumps. In some cases, they see the lines, assume there’s a dire situation and decide they need to top off the tank. 
 
 Then, a type of herd mentality develops, sparking chaos across the Garden State. 
 
 "Unfortunately, that’s very typical behavior after a hurricane," said Gregg Laskoski, a senior petroleum analyst with GasBuddy, a website that tracks gasoline trends. "Even if they know their car is going to stay parked, they still panic and go and fill up the tank. It exacerbates the problem." 
 
 "It adds to severity of the price spikes and prolongs the time it takes for things to return to what might be considered normal," he added. 
 
 Experts say that for the moment it’s premature and inaccurate to say there’s a gas shortage, but good luck trying to tell that to thousands of New Jerseyeans who spent hours snaking their way through mile-long lines. Some were looking to fill up their cars, while others carried canisters to bring back juice for their gas-powered generators. Others came up empty-handed as gas stations across the state closed up shop when the pumps ran dry. 
 
 The Morristown Police Department sent out a "gridlock alert," simply stating: "Avoid Morristown. Gas stations are out of fuel, please make other arrangements." And in Bloomfield, in Essex County, Mayor Ray McCarthy said police responded to eight incidents at gas stations, most of them disputes about cutting in line. 
 
 Other than flaring tempers, there are some real factors, such as stations with no power and fuel tankers running into road barricades, that could affect consumers looking for gas in the coming days. 
 
 
 
 Wednesday afternoon, the Department of Energy reported four of six Northeast refineries affected by Hurricane Sandy had resumed operations at either normal or reduced capacities. Two refineries remained shut, including the large Phillips 66 refinery in Linden, which produces about 238,000 barrels a day. 
 
 "When you lose one of the largest refineries, that could have an impact (on supply)," said Laskoski. "There’s a small number of refineries in the Northeast to start with." 
 
 As for Phillips 66, spokesman Rick Johnson said the Linden refinery regained power Wednesday morning. Now, workers are accessing the damage, seeing what needs to be done to reopen the facility. 
 
 "We’re working very hard to resume operations so we can supply our customers," he said. 
 
 Hess in Point Reading also was closed, but that is less likely to have a serious impact because of its small size, with a daily capacity of 70,000 barrels. 
 
 Beyond refinery closures, there’s the problem of power. 
 
 Along the Route 9 and Route 18 corridors in Old Bridge, into Manalapan and East Brunswick, dozens of filling stations were dark Wednesday, as were nearby traffic lights. 
 
 "Right now, we don’t have a gasoline crisis or an oil crisis or a diesel crisis. We have an electricity crisis," said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst with Oil Price Information Service, which tracks retail and wholesale gas prices nationwide. "There are few stations open, because you need to have electricity to pump gas." 
 
 Along the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike, the lines, backed onto the highways, a sight harkening back 40 years to the odd-even rationing introduced during the Arab oil embargo. 
 
 In Newark, vehicles idled along two blocks leading to the Delta station on Bloomfield Avenue, partially blocking traffic. 
 
 
 
 "We’ve never had anything like this before. People were waiting when we opened at 6:30 a.m. and they were out here last night until (midnight)," said Gurdev Singh, who was pumping gas. 
 
 The state Attorney General’s Office began investigating "dozens" of allegations of price gouging, or taking advantage of consumer demands by raising prices during a state of emergency. 
 
 "We’ve been hearing about gas stations selling for more than $5 gallon," said Eric Kanefsky. 
 
 Retailers taking advantage of the post-storm demand by boosting prices more than allowed by law would be penalized, he said. 
 
 Meanwhile, some consumers took to Twitter and online forums, looking for information about where they could go for the shortest lines. 
 
 Rich Post, of Howell, listened to radio reports about where to find gasoline for his SUV and gas cans to supply his generator. 
 
 "All I heard was ‘go West,’ " Post, 39, said of his search for service stations. Eventually, he ended up at the Valero pumps on Route 130 in South Brunswick. 
 
 Consumers wondered how long the problem would last and when gas lines would return to normal. 
 
 It’s hard to say, said Laskoski, the GasBuddy analyst. 
 
 His main advice: "Don’t fill up your tank unless it’s absolutely necessary. When the market is tight and the local consumers drain whatever is left of this, it’s going to create worse problems." 
 
 Star-Ledger staff writers Tom Haydon, Eugene Paik, Lisa Rose, Kelly Heyboer, Sue Epstein and Eunice Lee contributed to this report.
– Some gas stations in New York and New Jersey are still without power, while others have gone dry, prompting panic among residents looking to fuel their cars and backup generators until things return to normal, reports Reuters. At least half of all service stations in NYC can't sell gas, and that figure could rise to 75%, says one expert. Some taxi companies have been forced to pull fleets off the road as a result. In Jersey, tempers are running high at the few stations that are in service. One analyst says even people who don't plan to drive "still panic and go and fill up the tank—it exacerbates the problem," reports Newsday. Police responded to eight separate scuffles at gas stations in the town of Bloomfield alone, reports NJ.com.