President Joe Biden is set to announce a national emergency waiver that will allow for the sale of E15 — fuel which contains a blend of 15% ethanol and 85% gasoline — this summer in an attempt to reduce fuel costs for Americans amid elevated gas prices.
“The Administration’s strategy to spur the development of homegrown biofuels is critical to expanding Americans’ options for affordable fuel in the short-term and to building real energy independence in the long-term by reducing our reliance on fossil fuels,” the White House said in a statement. “Today, the President is announcing new steps to achieve that goal by increasing fuel supplies, offering more consumer choices, and reducing gasoline prices for Americans.”
“The President will announce today that the EPA Administrator is planning to allow E15 gasoline—gasoline that uses a 15 percent ethanol blend—to be sold this summer,” the White House added.
E15 contains up to 15% ethanol compared to most gasoline in the U.S., which contains about 10% ethanol. Currently, E15 cannot be sold in most of the country from June 1 to Sept. 15 due to air pollution rules.
The White House estimates that “E15 can save a family 10 cents per gallon of gas on average,” with many stations selling the fuel at an even greater discount.
According to AAA, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline nationwide is $4.09, down significantly from the record high of $4.331 reached last month after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The president is set to make the announcement on a visit to Iowa on Tuesday, the largest corn-producing state in the country. Biden will speak at an ethanol plant in Menlo, Iowa, a small town roughly 40 miles west of Des Moines.
Elected officials on both sides of the aisle have urged President Biden to take action to bolster domestic energy production in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which spiked gas prices to record highs across the country and around the world.
One Republican in particular — Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley — specifically called Biden to allow E15 sales year-round.
“President Biden is visiting [an] Iowa ethanol plant tomorrow,” Grassley wrote on Twitter on Monday. “I’ve made repeated calls for E15 year round because it’s good for environment, good for national security, good for farmers.”
“Hopefully tomorrow, President Biden comes to his senses and announces E15 year-round to lower gas prices and enhance energy independence,” he wrote on Monday.
Grassley’s counterpart in the Senate, Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, said that the two of them “have been calling for this for months.”
“As gas prices continue to rise, I hope the president will take this badly-needed step to help consumers and our rural economy,” she wrote on Twitter.
Ernst and Grassley signed a letter with more than a dozen other lawmakers last month, Democrats and Republicans, urging Biden to take this action, calling it a “no-cost, immediate step” in order “to help curb rising energy costs and displace banned Russian oil imports.”
Biden banned Russian oil imports in early March as a consequence for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Congress passed a Russian oil ban of its own last week, codifying President Biden’s action in a widely bipartisan vote. Since then, the White House has attempted to brand rising gas prices as “Putin’s Price Hike” and the administration has sought to mitigate its impacts on the American consumer, including the historic release of 1 million barrels of oil per day from the country’s strategic petroleum reserve.
“The focus here is also on making sure we are meeting the near-term supply emergency and doing so by leveraging homegrown fuels,” a Biden administration official said.
The announcement comes ahead of the release of the Consumer Price Index for March, which White House press secretary Jen Psaki warned could be “extraordinarily elevated” due to the invasion of Ukraine and its impacts on the global economy.
“Since President Putin’s military build-up accelerated in January, average gas prices are up more than 80 cents,” Psaki said Monday. “Most of the increase occurred in the month of March, and at times gas prices were more than a dollar above pre-invasion levels. Certainly this data will be a reminder of the need to do something and take additional steps.”
Despite its global nature, inflation has emerged as a major potential issue in the 2022 midterm elections, with Republicans hammering Democrats and the White House over price increases.
