EPA waives limits on summer sales of ethanol-heavier fuel blends

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a waiver allowing the sale of higher-ethanol gas blends during the summer, when it is typically restricted.

The waiver, issued Friday, will allow the sale of E15, or fuel that is 15 percent ethanol. The Clean Air Act allows for the temporary waiver of such restrictions in the face of ongoing fuel shortages.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement the ongoing war in Ukraine required the issuance of the waiver.

The announcement marks the second consecutive year the agency has issued a waiver allowing the summertime E15 sales. The 2022 waiver came at a time when U.S. gas prices hit record highs in the months following Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine.

The Renewable Fuels Association, the main ethanol trade group, praised the decision in a statement Friday.

“U.S. gasoline inventories are even tighter than they were a year ago, and Putin’s war on Ukraine continues to wreak havoc on global fuel supplies. EPA’s action allowing summertime E15 will help extend gasoline supplies, prevent fuel shortages, protect air quality and reduce carbon emissions,” RFA President and CEO Geoff Cooper said in a statement.

“We thank EPA, [the Department of Agriculture], [the Department of Energy], and the entire Biden administration for ensuring drivers across the country will continue to have access to lower-cost, lower-carbon E15 all summer long.”

Midwestern governors from the states that produce ethanol have intensely lobbied the agency in recent months to make ethanol available year-round. In March, the agency granted a petition from eight such governors that will make the fuel available all next year in those states.

Ethanol has also been the subject of negotiations among the GOP House majority as Republicans developed their debt limit proposal in recent weeks. After Midwestern Republicans objected to the initial text’s cuts to biofuel subsidies, they were restored to the bill the House passed Wednesday.