Washington DC April 13 2022: U.S. President Joe Biden will unveil plans on Tuesday to extend the availability of higher biofuel blends of gasoline during the summer to curb soaring fuel costs and to cut reliance on foreign energy sources, the White House said.
The move represents the administration’s latest attempt to tamp down inflation, which hit a new 40-year high on Tuesday.
Biden’s poll numbers have sagged under the weight of higher consumer costs and inflation is seen as a significant liability heading into the November mid-term elections.
The decision represents a win for the U.S. corn lobby by likely expanding demand for corn-based ethanol and a setback for oil refiners, which view ethanol as competition.
The measure will allow Americans to keep buying E15, a gasoline that uses a 15% ethanol blend, from June 1 to Sept. 15. While E15 is only 10 cents cheaper on average and is less “energy dense,” meaning drivers would need to buy more fuel, it should still help lower expenses, senior administration officials told reporters on a Monday call previewing the announcement.
“Those savings can add up, especially during the summer months, when fuel is elevated and as the supply emergency caused by (Russian President Vladimir) Putin aggression continues,” a senior administration official said.
White House spokesperon Jen Psaki later confirmed the move to reporters on Air Force One en route to Iowa, where Biden planned to make the announcement.
The decision comes after several weeks of internal debate within the White House that pitted environmental advocates like Gina McCarthy against Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack, a former governor of Iowa, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.
The summertime ban on E15 was imposed over concerns it contributes to smog in hot weather, though research has shown that the 15% blend may not increase smog relative to the more common 10% blends sold year-round.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and sanctions and boycotts that followed launched retail gasoline prices to record highs, a vulnerability for Biden’s fellow Democrats in November’s congressional elections.
Biden last month announced that the United States would sell 180 million barrels of crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve at a rate of 1 million barrels per day starting in May, the biggest release from the stockpile since it was created in the 1970s.
