May 24, 2016
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
LANSING, Mich. – Gov. Rick Snyder today issued Executive Order 2016-10, declaring a State of Energy Emergency in Michigan due to the shutdown of a fuel pipeline in Wisconsin and an unplanned outage of the Marathon refinery in Detroit heading into the holiday weekend. The order will allow those transporting fuel to spend more hours on the road to ensure fuels are available.
“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 executive order suspends state and federal regulations related to hours-of-service for motor carriers and drivers transporting all transportation fuels within Michigan, enabling these individuals to exceed the number of hours and consecutive days in which they can operate a commercial motor vehicle. It does not waive any environmental rules or alter 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.
Brader and her agency work with a variety of state agencies, including the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Michigan State Police, to make recommendations regarding the declaration of energy emergencies.
Motor carriers or drivers currently subject to an out-of-service order, in which operations are prohibited, are not eligible for the exemption and suspension until the out-of-service order expires or the conditions for rescission have been satisfied. 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.
EO 2016-10 is effective immediately and remains in effect until it is rescinded or until 11:59 p.m. June 6, 2016, whichever first occurs.
The full text of EO 2016-10 is available for download here.
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