WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden will announce Tuesday another step to try to reduce prices for drivers who have been paying more to fill up their tanks: expanding the availability of biofuels.
While visiting an ethanol plant in Iowa, Biden will announce the administration plans on allowing gasoline that uses a 15% ethanol blend to be sold during the summer, according to senior administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Called E15, the blend can cost 10 cents per gallon less on average at the 2,300 gas stations where it’s sold, the officials said.
Regular gas is averaging around $4.11 a gallon compared with $2.86 a year ago, according to AAA, and Biden is under political pressure to show he is doing what he can to ease the price pain at the pump.
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His announcement comes the same day the Consumer Price Index for March will be released, a report that is expected to show a large year-to-year spike in inflation.
Setting expectations for a big number, White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Monday said the administration expects inflation “to be extraordinarily elevated” because of the jump in oil prices after Russia invaded Ukraine.
“We are taking a range of steps to reduce the price of gas to move us toward a long-term, more clean energy economy,” she also said.
Biden previously announced…
