U.S. EPA extends emergency fuel waiver for Midwest states due to refinery outage
8/30/2024 1:00:00 PM
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency extended the emergency waiver for the second time in response to fuel shortages in four Midwest states where the gasoline supply has been impacted by the outage of ExxonMobil's 251,800-bpd refinery in Joliet, Illinois. The waiver for Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana and Illinois will continue through Sept. 15, the EPA said.
Why it is important. The waiver, which suspends federal anti-smog rules that require the sale of more expensive gasoline in the summer, should help curb gasoline prices.
Midwest gasoline prices have surged in recent weeks due to the refinery shutdown.
Context. ExxonMobil took the Joliet refinery offline in mid-July due to a power outage after a storm. Exxon began restarting select refinery units three weeks after it lost power. On July 31, the EPA issued an emergency waiver through Aug. 20 in response to the fuel supply emergency, and extended it earlier this month through Sept. 1.
The refinery produces around 9 MMgpd of gasoline and diesel, the company website shows.
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