Houston (AFP) – The US Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday issued a temporary emergency waiver to allow countrywide sales of higher-ethanol fuel in the summer, Administrator Lee Zeldin said, easing smog controls amid government concerns about adequate supply.
“Based on the information we possess, we foresee potential for a disruption to the American fuel supply,” Zeldin said at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, after global oil prices spiked following the launch of the US-Israel war on Iran. The EPA issued a “temporary emergency fuel waiver” to allow the sale of E15 — gasoline blended with 15 percent ethanol — in the summer. Such sale is normally prohibited due to environmental and health concerns related to the fuel’s volatility.
The EPA also removed “all federal impediments to selling E10,” gasoline blended with 10 percent ethanol, Zeldin said. Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA enforces limits on when ethanol-blended fuels can be sold due to concerns about their contributions to ground-level ozone, a primary component of smog. The EPA’s actions on E15 and E10 go into effect on May 1 — the agency’s official start of the summer season — for 20 days, the maximum allowable under the Clean Air Act.
The US government has frequently issued similar waivers in recent years, often renewing them multiple times each time they expire. Global oil prices have surged since the war was launched on February 28, with US consumers seeing a 33.6-percent increase at the pump for regular gasoline since then, as per data from the AAA motor club. Affordability has been a key political concern for US President Donald Trump, who has claimed to have tackled inflation despite prices remaining persistently high.
US consumers have been battered by years of higher-than-expected inflation post-pandemic, with inflation still significantly higher than the central bank’s long-term two-percent target. “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,” said US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. Rollins also noted that the waiver would be a boost for US farmers, who produce the ethanol that goes into the blended fuel.
© 2024 AFP
