As part of the federal government’s response to recent tornadoes that caused the emergency shutdown of the ExxonMobil refinery in Joliet, Illinois, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan issued an emergency fuel waiver on Aug. 1 to help alleviate fuel shortages in four states—Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin—where the supply of gasoline has been affected by the refinery outage.
The decision comes following requests by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers after the July 15 shutdown.
“We continue to assess damage to our equipment and have begun the work necessary to restart operations. At this time, we can’t speculate how long operations may be suspended," ExxonMobil said in a July 29 update on the refinery outage.
EPA has waived the federal regulations and federally enforceable State Implementation Plan requirements for the low Reid vapor pressure (RVP) and reformulated gasoline (RFG) requirements in the four states to facilitate the supply of fuel in these areas. This waiver will continue through Aug. 20.
The Clean Air Act allows Regan, in consultation with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), to waive certain fuel requirements to address shortages. As a result of the ExxonMobil refinery shutdown, Regan determined that extreme and unusual fuel supply circumstances exist and has granted a temporary waiver to help ensure that an adequate supply of gasoline is available in the affected areas until normal supply to the region can be restored.
As required by law, the EPA and DOE evaluated the situation and determined that granting a short-term waiver was consistent with the public interest. The EPA and DOE are continuing to actively monitor the fuel supply situation resulting from the ExxonMobil refinery shutdown and considering additional measures to alleviate the effect, the agencies said.
To mitigate any effects on air quality, the Clean Air Act provides strict criteria for when fuel waivers may be granted and requires that waivers be limited as much as possible in terms of their geographic scope and duration, they said.
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