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By Giulia Carbonaro
Senior Reporter
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As gas prices continue inching closer to a national average of $4 per gallon, the Trump administration has announced it will allow U.S. refiners and retailers to supply two gasoline blends with more ethanol than usually allowed in the summer season, starting in May.
Why It Matters
The ongoing conflict in the Middle East, which has disrupted transit through the crucial Strait of Hormuz, has caused crude oil prices to jump over $100 per barrel since the U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran on February 28.
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As a result, gas prices have skyrocketed all across the world and in the U.S., where the cost of refueling a vehicle on Thursday was the highest drivers have faced in nearly three years, according to AAA data. The average national price of gas was standing at $3.981 per gallon on March 26, up from $2.983 a month earlier.
What To Know
A recent study by Stanford University researchers found that the typical U.S. family will pay an extra $68 this month as a result of higher gas prices, while over the remainder of the year they will pay $740 more in gas costs, they estimated.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on Wednesday that it was issuing a temporary emergency fuel waiver to allow sales of E15, a blend of gasoline mixed with 15 percent ethanol. The sale of E15 is normally restricted in half of the country in the summer months due to regulations to prevent air pollution.
The waiver will take effect May 1 and last through May 20, but could be extended if gas prices continue soaring in the coming weeks. According to EPA, the temporary lifting of restrictions on the sale of E15 should give Americans “relief at the pumps ahead of the summer driving season,” when gas prices normally rise.
The agency also announced on the same day the removal of all federal impediments to sales of E10 across the country, a gasoline blend mixed with 10 percent ethanol.
The move is the latest of a series of emergency solutions the Trump administration has pushed forward in the last couple of weeks to try to lower gas prices and alleviate the additional financial burden on Americans.
On March 11, President Donald Trump ordered the release of 172 million barrels of oil from the country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which started last week. A day later, he temporarily approved the purchase of Russian oil already at sea, in a move that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said “will not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government.”
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On March 18, the president also ordered a 60-day waiver of the Jones Act, a roughly 100-year-old law requiring goods shipped between U.S. ports to be carried on ships that are U.S.-built, -flagged and -crewed. The waiver allows foreign ships to carry fuels through U.S. ports.
Experts have been critical of these solutions, saying they will not do much to lower gas prices for Americans. Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, told CBS News that the release of millions of barrels from the SPR “won’t have much impact at all. It’s kind of like trying to replace a water main with a straw.”
The Center for American Progress, an independent, nonpartisan policy institute based in Washington, D.C., said that the Trump administration “is reportedly looking for ways to lower energy prices for Americans, yet it is not pursuing some of the most obvious and impactful solutions, chief among them ending the war in Iran.”
Instead, researchers wrote in a recent analysis, lifting sanctions on Russia’s oil and waiving the Jones Act ensure “oil and gas companies benefit from the collateral damage of the president’s war” while falling “well short of addressing Americans’ cost concerns.”
De Haan said of the EPA’s temporary emergency waiver on the sale of E15 that it “will have virtually no impact on regular gas prices, but it will make a slightly cheaper product [E15] available at some pumps.” This, however, will affect fewer than 5 percent of stations in the country, he said, and “it could have a small adverse effect with more ethanol demand,” he added in a post on social media.
De Haan predicted that the waiver will be extended “through the summer.”
What People Are Saying
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin told reporters at S&P Global’s CERAWeek conference in Houston, Texas, as reported by CNBC: “EPA waivers will work to prevent disruption in America’s fuel supply by keeping E15 and E10 on the market and giving Americans more fuel options.
“We will continue to monitor the supply with industry and federal partners. The agency will be ready to extend the emergency fuel waivers as ongoing issues continue to present the need for action.”
Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, a Republican, wrote on social media: “Today Americans can fill up with summertime E15 fuel, which saves almost $.60/gallon. This will help ease pain at the pump, but it can’t replace the need to address global oil supply and get U.S. production back in the game.”
President Donald Trump said during a press conference in the Oval Office on March 19 that he expected gas prices would be “much worse” after authorizing strikes in Iran, stating: “Everything was going great, the economy was great, oil prices were very low, and gasoline was dropping too. And I saw what was happening in Iran and I said, ‘I hate to make this excursion, but we’re going to have to do it,’ and I actually thought the numbers would be worse.
“I said, ‘You know, if I do that, oil prices will go up, and the economy will go down a little bit.’ I thought it would be worse, much worse. Actually, I thought there was a chance it could be much worse. It’s not bad, and it’s going to be over with pretty soon.”
Vice President JD Vance called the rise in gas prices a “temporary blip,” adding: “Look, gas prices are up, and we know they’re up, and we know that people are hurting because of it, and we’re doing everything that we can to ensure that they stay lower.”
What Happens Next
A majority of experts agree that gas prices will only significantly come down once the conflict in the Middle East ends and transit through the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries one fifth of the world’s oil, is re-established.
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