Gas prices in Wisconsin should finally start to tick down, after an outage at a fuel refinery in Illinois last month sent prices soaring across the Midwest . The refinery closed due to a storm in mid-July.
On Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a waiver allowing Wisconsin and three other states to sell certain gasoline blends that are normally restricted under the Clean Air Act. The waiver will expand the amount of gasoline being sold across the states and, as a result, help reduce prices at the pump.
Along with Wisconsin, the EPA waiver will be in place in Illinois, Michigan and Indiana until Aug. 20. If retailers still have some of restricted gas blends left in their stores past that date, they can continue to sell it until supplies deplete.
How much will gas prices go down?
The EPA did not specify how much gas prices could go down as a result of the waiver.
However, Wisconsin appears to already be seeing some relief at the fuel pump since the waiver has kicked in. On Friday, the state's average price for a gallon of gasoline was $3.49, compared to $3.52 a week ago, according to AAA . Prices have been rounded to the nearest hundredth of a cent.
About half of Wisconsin counties are still seeing gas prices above Friday's national average $3.48, but most cities have experienced price drops in the last week. In Milwaukee, average prices dipped from $3.80 to $3.69 per gallon in the past week.
What is the environmental impact of the waiver?
The EPA waiver did not specify expected environmental impact from pausing the regulations, but the rules being lifted are in place to mitigate pollution.
The waiver lifts a regulation that requires states to sell low Reid Vapor Pressure gasoline during the summer months. These rules are in place because high RVP gasoline evaporates more easily in heat and can exasperate ozone pollution and ozone-related health problems, according to the EPA .
The EPA is also temporarily lifting requirements to sell reformulated gasoline across the four states. Reformulated gasoline is blended to burn more cleanly than conventional gasoline and to reduce toxic pollutants in the air people breathe.
What happened at the ExxonMobil facility in Illinois?
A storm-related outage at an ExxonMobil facility in Illinois is to blame for rising gas prices across the Upper Midwest, AAA said in a July news release .
The refinery in Joliet, Illinois, lost power after a tornado touched down in the Chicago area on July 16. The facility, which processes 248,000 barrels per day , was about 50 miles from the tornado and battered by heavy wind and rain.
The refinery is not yet back in operation and has not shared any updates on its reopening timeline.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Why gas prices could drop in Wisconsin in August
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