Hours of service weather-related FMCSA waivers now cover 20 states

One waiver was granted to Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The other covers Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Ohio, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

Both waivers cover “direct assistance to the emergency transporting heating fuel, including propane, natural gas, and heating oil.” They also both expire January 15 at 11:59 p.m.

The waiver for the Northeastern states was an extension of a December 12 regional emergency declaration “related to winter storm, cold weather and the power outage at the Marcus Hook refinery.” 

The facility at Marcus Hook near Philadelphia is not a refinery, though it had been in a former life. It is now a natural gas liquids processing facility owned by Energy Transfer (NYSE: ET). A power outage in November led to a reduced supply of propane from the plant, which led to an extension of Hours of Service in New Jersey, declared by its Gov. Phil Murphy. A day later, FMCSA issued its regional emergency declaration.

Midwest problems

A waiver granted Tuesday for the 10 other mostly Midwestern states was the first by FMCSA for those areas, though several of those states already had their own waivers in place. 

A reason cited for the need for a waiver was “a pipeline break and operations issues associated with the Mid-American Pipeline System.”

But an article by Nebraska Public Media quoted Rick Rainey, vice president of public relations at Enterprise Products, as saying that “there was never a problem with the Mid America Pipeline involving a break.” He did say that “there was an issue with some product in the line that did not meet proper specifications.”

The Mid American Pipeline System carries natural gas liquids like propane from production hubs in places like the Permian Basin or the Rockies to areas where it is consumed.

The FMCSA waiver also cited an “unexpected shutdown” of the Robinson refinery operated by Marathon Petroleum. While news stories did say Robinson in Illinois had a lengthy shutdown in the spring, and is continuing with some other large projects, there is no indication that it remains fully shut.

Water in Washington

The third action taken by FMCSA Tuesday was the extension of a waiver granted to Washington first issued December 10. That waiver is related to cleanup and relief efforts arising from the extensive flooding the state suffered earlier this month.

While the other waivers are specific to heating fuels, the Washington waiver is directed more generally at “commercial motor vehicle operations while providing direct assistance supporting emergency relief efforts related to the weather and flooding emergency in the State of Washington.”

The FMCSA declaration said it does not include “routine commercial deliveries, including mixed loads with a nominal quantity of qualifying emergency relief added to obtain the benefits of the Declaration.”

The Washington waiver expires January 23.

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