Energy Policy and Gas Prices

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced at the CERAWeek conference in Houston on March 25, 2026, that the Trump administration will again waive seasonal limits on sales of E15 gasoline — fuel with up to 15% ethanol — this summer, a move pitched as relief from war‑driven pump prices that have climbed to an average of $3.98 per gallon, more than $1 higher than a month ago. The agency will also “remove all federal impediments” to selling E10 (10% ethanol) nationwide, broadening access to lower‑priced blends that the ethanol lobby says typically shave 10–40 cents per gallon off drivers’ costs. Normally, E15 is restricted in the summer because it evaporates more easily in heat and can worsen smog, so the waiver effectively trades air‑quality protections for lower prices and increased domestic fuel supply amid the Iran war’s Strait of Hormuz disruptions. Ethanol producers, long pushing for year‑round E15, immediately praised the decision as strengthening U.S. energy security and reducing reliance on foreign oil, while critics online are raising familiar concerns about higher summer ozone, the climate and water impacts of corn‑ethanol expansion, and whether the savings at the pump are as large or broad as industry claims. The move echoes similar emergency waivers under both Trump and Biden, underscoring how Washington is increasingly leaning on ethanol policy as an ad‑hoc price‑relief lever when global crude markets seize up.