Joliet Refinery Lost Power Monday Night But Says Safety Their Focus

ExxonMobil in Channahon sent WJOL a statement regarding the power outage last night following severe storms.

Pete Colarelli, Midwest Public Affairs Manager says they are, “working to restart operations at our Joliet Refinery after we lost power due to severe weather. Our focus is the safety of our people and surrounding community, and our thoughts are with all those impacted.”

ExxonMobil lost power at 9:20 p.m. on July 15th. No one was injured, and they are monitoring air and water and he says there is no impact to the community. Colarelli says they are minimizing flaring as much as possible. Flaring is the controlled burning of excess natural gas for safety reasons. However, flaring can also pollute the atmosphere with hazardous gases such as methane and carbon dioxide.

ExxonMobil is communicating with federal, state and local emergency planning officials about our response to the storm.