Gov. Rick Snyder issued an Executive Order declaring a State of Energy Emergency in Michigan because of a fuel pipeline in Wisconsin and an unplanned outage of the Marathon refinery in Detroit.
"We want to make sure the fuel Michiganders need for their travels to work, school or a long weekend trip is available," Snyder said. "This executive order will help ensure there are no artificial shortages of fuel impacting the state's residents or visitors."
The order allows those transporting fuel to spend more hours on the road to make sure fuel is available. It suspends regulations related to hours-of-service for motor carriers and drivers transporting all transportation fuels within Michigan. This will allow them to work more hours, and days in a row, while operating a commercial motor vehicle. It does not change environmental rules or commercial arrangements.
"The difficulties with the shutdown of the only pipeline between Milwaukee and Green Bay, combined with what we hope will be a short-term outage of the Marathon refinery, are affecting prices at the pump and leading to long wait times at fueling terminals," said Valerie Brader, executive director of the Michigan Agency for Energy.
EO 2016-10 is effective immediatly, and remains in effect until it is rescinded or until 11:59 pm June 6, 2016.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the Michigan State Police require that drivers for motor carriers operating under the Declaration of Energy Emergency have a copy of the declaration in their possession. It is available at www.michigan.gov/snyder.
