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The US Environmental Protection Agency said on Wednesday that it would temporarily allow widespread sales of a higher-ethanol gas blend in a move that it hopes will tamp down consumer prices that have soared since the Iran war began.
The higher-ethanol blend has been prohibited in warm weather because of concerns it could worsen smog.
“President Trump is unleashing American Energy Dominance, and today’s action will directly lower prices at the pump and gives a clear demand signal to our domestic biofuels producers,” the US agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, said in a statement.
The summer waiver for E15 has become commonplace in recent years, and both Republicans and Democrats have called for it to become year-round and permanent to lower prices at the pump. It’s already allowed in some states: Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, Missouri, Wisconsin and most of South Dakota, according to the Renewable Fuels Association, an ethanol trade group. The association said it’s also legal in cities that require reformulated gasoline, or gasoline blended with the intent to burn more cleanly.
In Kansas, the Democratic representative Sharice Davids has requested and been granted emergency waivers for E15 for several years, from EPA administrations under presidents of both parties. This week the US senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, urged the Trump administration to take “a no-cost, immediate step” to curb rising domestic fuel costs amid the Iran war.
But not all are convinced the move will substantially lower gas prices. E15 isn’t available in all states and some places don’t have the necessary infrastructure or enough of a supply of ethanol to ramp up use, said Kenneth Gillingham, a professor at the Yale School of the Environment who studies the impacts of transportation regulations on prices, emissions and consumer welfare.
Gillingham also said the higher levels of corrosive ethanol in E15 can be a risk especially to older cars, boats and all-terrain vehicles.
More corn used for ethanol also means less can be used for animal feed, said Jason Hill, a professor at the University of Minnesota who studies food, energy markets and environmental consequences. That means consumers could be trading lower costs at the pump for higher costs at the grocery store.
“I think it’s difficult to see when the ledger’s settled how this is a benefit for US consumers,” Hill said.
Hill said he thought the announcement was targeted more at farmers hit hard by higher prices for the diesel they use to run their equipment and by fertilizer price hikes caused by the Iran war. He said similar announcements have been made before as a way to express support for “agriculture and those who drive.”
Gillingham also said the move comes at a cost beyond economics.
”There’s more likely to be ozone issues in the summer and some people will die,” he said. “It will lead to some earlier heart attacks and it will lead to some earlier respiratory issues that wouldn’t have been the case otherwise.”
The oil industry has generally opposed expansion of E15, arguing that biofuel blending is costly and raises gasoline prices. But a vice-president at the American Petroleum Institute wrote a statement in support of the move. “By temporarily easing summer fuel requirements, this action helps ensure American consumers continue to have access to affordable, reliable energy,” Will Hupman said.
