News Releases from Headquarters›Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA)

EPA Approves TCEQ Request to Expand Emergency Fuel Waiver

WASHINGTON -- Following Hurricane Harvey’s landfall in Texas, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt has approved the request from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to expand the emergency fuel waiver to include additional inland areas of the state.

The waiver will now include the four-county Dallas-Fort Worth reformulated gasoline (RFG) area, the 98-county area required to use low volatility fuel, and the 110-county area required to use Texas Low Emission Diesel (TxLED).

The waiver authority was exercised under the Clean Air Act and was granted by EPA Administrator Pruitt, in coordination with the U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, at the request of Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Executive Director Richard Hyde and Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

The waiver supersedes the August 25, 2017 waiver and applies until September 15, 2017.  As required by law, EPA and DOE evaluated the situation and determined that granting a short-term waiver was consistent with the public interest.

To mitigate any impacts on air quality the Clean Air Act provides strict criteria for when fuels waivers may be granted, and requires that waivers be limited as much as possible in terms of their geographic scope and duration.

More information: www.epa.gov/enforcement/fuel-waivers