The Washington Examiner (8/31, Siciliano) reports that the EPA expanded its fuel emission waiver to Washington DC and 38 states in the East and Midwest on Thursday to ease the flow of existing supplies of gasoline into the market in the aftermath of fuel disruptions caused by Hurricane Harvey. The decision was made after reports the Colonial Pipeline, which “delivers a big chunk of the eastern seaboard’s gasoline supply from the Gulf Coast to New York City”, would be shut down due to the number of large refineries closed because of flooding. Reuters (8/31, Gardner) reports that the waiver will last through Sept. 15 for most states. The EPA and Energy Department said they will “take other steps if extreme and unusual supply crunches hit other areas.”

State covered under the waiver to-date are:  Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia,  Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico,  New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.