Biden administration to issue waiver allowing summer sales of higher-ethanol fuel blend

The Biden administration will temporarily authorize the sale of gasoline with higher ethanol content over the summer to counteract high gas prices, a senior administration official confirmed. 

Under a national emergency waiver set to be issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a restriction on E15, or fuel with a 15 percent ethanol blend, would be lifted during the high-demand summer driving season between June 1 and Sept. 15. The administration official projected that at current prices, use of E15 could save the average family about 10 cents a gallon. 

“This will also help us bridge towards real energy independence and implementing the emergency fuel waiver the EPA will work with states across the country to ensure there are no significant air quality impacts in the summer driving season,” the official said on a call with reporters Monday evening. “EPA is also considering additional action to facilitate the use of E15 year-round, including continued discussions with states who have expressed interest in allowing year-round use of E15.” 

The announcement comes as average gas prices have hit record highs, with particularly dramatic spikes following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Prices have since subsided somewhat, but the Biden administration has sought to pin the blame on both the invasion and what they say is price gouging by American oil companies. The latter was the subject of a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing last week. 

President Biden has also ordered the largest ever release of oil from the strategic petroleum reserve and called for oil firms to produce using wells on unused leases. 

Advocates for renewable energy have presented the gas crisis and the volatility of the oil market as a further incentive to transition away from fossil fuels, a line the administration echoed in the Monday call. 

“I think … the long-term play here is going to require us to increasingly leverage homegrown fuels [that] have a lower carbon intensity, that provide a decarbonization pathway in places where we’re not going to [otherwise] find it, or at least currently, there aren’t other technologically available pathways,” such as medium-distance air travel, the official said.