EPA pauses gasoline requirements for Colonial outage

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today waived for a week tougher summer gasoline requirements in three states and the District of Columbia.

The emergency fuel waiver is intended to help ease supply shortages caused by the ongoing outage of the Colonial Pipeline system, the agency said.

Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP) requirements in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and the District of Columbia were waived through 18 May.

The US requires lower RVP gasoline in summer months to reduce fuel evaporation and associated smog. Transitions to lower-RVP fuel begin in April and finish at the retailer level by June.

Colonial shut down its 5,500-mile (8,851km) pipeline network to mitigate a ransomware attack disrupting a system it estimates supplies nearly half of the fuel consumed on the US Atlantic coast. The pipeline operator has restored some service and plans to restore full operations by the end of the week, but the largest segments of the pipeline remain offline.

By Elliott Blackburn