President has announced he’s expanding the availability of biofuels in a bid to lower high gas prices he’s blamed on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on .
Visiting an ethanol plant in a small Iowa town on Tuesday, Biden said his administration will waive rules that restrict blending ethanol with gasoline. The Environmental Protection Agency will allow E15 gas, which has 15% ethanol, at pumps this summer to try to cut the US’s reliance on energy sources abroad.
‘You’re going to be able to keep filling up with E15,’ Biden said, from Menlo, Iowa. ‘It’s not going to solve all our problems. But it’s going to help some people.’
E15 can cost on average 10 cents less per gallon at the 2,300 gas stations where it’s available for purchase, the White House stated. It represents a small fraction of the 145,000 gas stations across the US.
The measure will allow Americans to continue buying E15 from June 1 to September 15. It is considered a win for the American corn lobby versus oil refiners, which see ethanol as a threat to their industry.
E15 had been banned in the summer over concerns that it would worsen smog in warmer weather. However, the 15% blend may not drive up smog when compared to the 10% blend commonly sold all year, according to research.
Biden attributed the high prices for gas and other products on Putin, who ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in late February. Biden’s announcement came the same day that the Labor Department revealed that , reaching the highest level in 40 years.
‘Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has driven up gas prices and food prices all over the world,’ Biden said.
‘Two of the largest grain producers in the world, Ukraine and Russia, are not doing what they usually do so everything’s going up. We saw it in today’s inflation data. Seventy percent of the increase in prices at margin came from Putin’s price hike in gasoline.’
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