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Harvey is crimping gasoline supplies in the U.S.

In addition to its considerable human tragedy, Tropical Storm Harvey is crimping the supply of energy that runs the U.S. economy.

As a result, look for higher prices at the pump in the next few weeks. Higher energy costs could also pass through to prices of plane tickets and other consumer goods delivered by trucks and ships. (Which is pretty much everything.)

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The stretch of the Gulf of Mexico coast from Texas to Louisiana is the major U.S. hub for refining crude oil into finished fuels that consumers and industry use every day. According to the research firm S&P Global Platts, several Texas refineries with a total capacity of 2.2 million barrels a day of output had been shut down as of Sunday evening.

The closings had an immediate impact on the gasoline market, where contracts for September delivery were up about 4 percent in New York trading around midday.

The refining industry was similarly affected during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. But it’s also worth keeping an eye on some key differences with Harvey, which landed over the weekend in Texas as a hurricane:

— To a greater degree than Louisiana, the Harvey-affected state of Texas is also a hotbed of U.S. crude oil production — the raw material that goes into the refineries. Crude prices were down more than 2 percent around midday, since the demand for oil is likely to be down due to refinery shutdowns.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, more than one-fifth of the Gulf’s daily crude output and more than a quarter of natural-gas production has now been shuttered due to Harvey.

– Much of the Gulf’s natural-gas production is used to fire electric plants. As utilities are tightly regulated, however, it’s harder for them to pass along short-term price changes than, say, your corner gas station. So you won’t see your power bills spike.