Biden EPA to Allow Summer Sales of Higher-Ethanol E15 Gasoline

(Bloomberg) -- Biden administration officials have decided to issue an emergency waiver that will allow widespread sales of higher-ethanol E15 gasoline this summer, following a strategy used last year to help tamp down high pump prices.

The waiver, set to be announced by the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday, will temporarily exempt the 15% ethanol fuel blend from volatility requirements that effectively block sales from June 1 to Sept. 15 throughout much of the country. The planned move was described by people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the decision isn’t public. 

The waiver comes after weeks of lobbying by ethanol advocates, including elected officials from corn-producing Midwest states, who were frustrated by a separate Biden administration decision to delay another policy action that aimed to expand summertime E15 sales until next year.  

To justify the emergency move, the EPA is set to cite similar conditions that provided the foundation for a series of the temporary waivers last year, the people said. At the time, the EPA argued that the fuel volatility waiver for E15 was in the public interest and needed to address “fuel supply circumstances” spurred by the war in Ukraine.

Oil industry advocates have questioned the legality of the emergency approach, raising the specter of a court challenge.

Spokespeople for the EPA did not immediately respond to requests for comment after normal business hours.

Conventional E10 gasoline, which is widely sold across the US, has a partial waiver from the same fuel volatility limits already — an exemption Midwestern governors have asked the EPA to abolish.

An analysis conducted for the pro-ethanol group Growth Energy said that when summertime E15 sales were greenlighted last year, the blend cost nearly $1-per-gallon less than conventional E10 in some areas.

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