Gasoline prices in the Midwest should temper after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday issued waivers for the state and three others after an emergency shutdown at an Illinois refinery.
The average gas price on Thursday in the Great Lakes State was almost $3.69 per gallon for regular fuel, according to the American Automobile Association. That was above the national average of $3.48. Michigan’s price average was the 10th highest in the country.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan, in consultation with the U.S. Energy Department, issued an emergency fuel waiver through Aug. 20 in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin for the federal regulations and federally enforceable State Implementation Plan requirements for the low Reid vapor pressure and reformulated gasoline, according to an EPA news release.
Tornadoes in the middle of July in northeast Illinois resulted in an emergency shutdown on July 15 of an ExxonMobil refinery in Joliet, Illinois, about 40 miles southwest of Chicago. The shutdown has squelched supply in the region, prompting rising fuel costs in the region. Prices in Michigan, however, are lower than they were a week ago when the average was $3.80, according to AAA.
The Joliet location can refine up to 250,000 barrels of crude oil per day delivered from Canada through pipelines, according to ExxonMobil’s website. That’s able to produce daily about 9 million gallons of gasoline and diesel mostly for the Midwest — equivalent to driving an average car around the world more than 7,000 times.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer joined other Midwestern state leaders in sending a letter to the EPA requesting the emergency fuel waiver to mitigate price fluctuations, which usually are higher during the summer already because of hurricane season and increased demand from summer travel.
