(Radio Iowa) – Senator Chuck Grassley is calling on President Biden to direct the E-P-A to clear the way for summertime sales of gasoline with a 15 percent blend of ethanol. “Unless the EPA files an emergency waiver for E15, we’ll see a quarter of E15 stations stop providing lower cost fuel to consumers by next Monday,” Grassley says. Current E-P-A guidelines prohibit the sale of E-15 from terminals in about two-thirds of the country after April 30th. E-15 is about 10 cents per gallon cheaper than E-10 according to Triple A. “The administration has the tools in the toolbox to deal with the rising price of gasoline and they’re choosing to not use it and I think that’s malpractice,” Grassley says.

President Biden visited an ethanol near Menlo in mid-April of last year to announce his administration would approve sales of E-15 through the summer driving season. The E-P-A recently announced it would allow year round E-15 sales to start in the summer of 2024. “What’s wrong with 2023? Well, EPA says that there needs to be a deadline for the suppliers to be able to supply E15 and if they don’t know it by a certain date, it can’t get it to the filling stations through the summer months,” Grassley says. “It’s still April. (Biden) could make that decision today and have E15 available during the summer.”

According to the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, a D-C based trade group, refiners have to make expensive changes to produce E-15 for summertime use and those costs will be passed along to consumers. The group is asking Governor Kim Reynolds and seven governors to stop their push for year round E-15 sales in their Midwest states.