High Gas Prices? No Worries, Just Use More Ethanol

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The current US administration is loaded with ideologues who couldn’t formulate a coherent thought if they had a week to think about it and two Rhodes scholars to assist them. Thanks to the alleged president handing the keys to the military to a lunatic who wants to re-enact the Crusades in order to induce Armageddon, global oil and methane supplies have been violently disrupted.

While a million people in Iran and Lebanon have been displaced and now have no jobs, no money, and no possessions, Americans are shredding their garments because the prices of gasoline and diesel have jumped. Who cares about some Iranian and Lebanese refugees? This is America, damn it, and we won’t stand for high fuel prices, even if they are half what the rest of the world pays!

The EPA, run by Trump jock-sniffer Lee Zelden, has good news for US drivers. In a press statement dated March 25, 2026, the agency said it has “issued a temporary emergency fuel waiver to allow nationwide sales of E15 — gasoline blended with 15 percent ethanol — and to remove all federal impediments to selling E10, gasoline blended with 10 percent ethanol, across the country.”

Through the waiver, EPA is fortifying the domestic gasoline supply chain and providing Americans relief at the pumps ahead of the summer driving season. Beginning on May 1, 2026, EPA’s waivers will work to prevent disruption in America’s fuel supply by keeping E15 on the market and giving Americans more fuel options.

EPA is committed to doing its part to ensure available supply of fuels and lower the cost of energy for American families, farmers and manufacturers by reducing our reliance on imported fuels and bolstering US energy independence through the cutting of burdensome red tape and commonsense rulemaking.

The emergency fuel waiver will temporarily waive the summer low volatility requirements and blending limitations for gasoline to provide additional flexibility to the fuel marketplace. This will increase fuel supply and provide a variety of gasoline fuel blends to choose from without changing environmental protections already in place.

E15 is currently offered at over 3,000 gas stations nationwide, where it serves as a more affordable choice for Americans. Without this action, E15 gasoline cannot be used by roughly half of the country this summer. Additionally, EPA is also waiving federal enforcement of all state “boutique” fuel requirements for gasoline, allowing the production and distribution of gasoline with 9 to 15 percent ethanol content at a single common Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP) standard of 10 psi across the nation.

EPA’s actions will go into effect on May 1, 2026, for most states, and will initially remain in place through May 20, 2026. This 20 day window is the maximum number of days allowed under the [Clean Air Act].

Refugees throughout the Middle East are cheering the news. War crimes candidate Benjamin Netanyahu was heard muttering darkly, “Lemi achpat mimchiri hadlak.”

Can’t Win For Losing

I asked my wife what she thought of this news and she immediately said, “How can you grow corn to make ethanol if the price of fertilizer and the cost of diesel to run the tractors have doubled? And doesn’t ethanol have a lower energy density than gasoline, so the more you use, the lower your mileage? Pay more to get less. Sounds like something the Repugnicans would do!” How is it possible that my bride is so much smarter than the head of the EPA and what does that say about those who are supposedly running the country?

The answer is out there for anyone who cares to look for it — something Zeldin doesn’t have time for, evidently. According to the US Energy Information Agency, “The energy content of ethanol is about 33 percent less than pure gasoline…..In general, vehicle fuel economy may decrease by about 3 percent when using E10 relative to gasoline that does not contain fuel ethanol.”

Using my Radio Shack solar-powered pocket calculator, bumping the ethanol content in gasoline to 15 percent will lead to a 4.5 percent decrease in fuel economy, a fact the EPA statement fails to mention. Is Lee Zeldin lying to us or is he really that stupid? We leave it to our readers to decide.

War And Fertilizer

Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman actually wrote about the effect of the unprovoked war on Iran and fertilizer recently. The ludicrous president told the nation last night the US does not import any oil that needs to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. While that is true, it does import lots of fertilizer made from methane in Qatar that does travel through the Strait — or at least it did until Trump took the US to war over nothing.

Methane is expensive to ship but fertilizer is relatively cheap to transport, which is why Qatar converts lots of its abundant methane supplies into urea — the principal component of fertilizer. A lot of that fertilizer winds up in the US.

“So this is having a direct impact on US farmers,” Krugman says. “The price of urea is way, way up and….the planting season is coming up. Farmers have long since contracted for their fertilizer (for this year), but will there actually be fertilizer available?

It’s not at all hard to imagine that the suppliers will declare force majeure, say there’s a war on, which is normally a valid excuse for backing out of contracts, and simply fail to supply the fertilizer. That would be a real catastrophe.” Farmers are facing potential financial ruin, but that is just one of the many disruptions caused by the Iran War.

More Emissions

There are other concerns as well. According to The Drive, air quality rules under the Clean Air Act restrict the sale of E15 in the summer because it creates more smog than E10. “That’s what the EPA is focused on — waiving those rules to allow oil companies to keep making E15 gas longer into the spring and summer than they normally would ahead of the typical June cutoff.

“Theoretically, there will be more of this cheaper ethanol-rich blend available for longer. The thing is, though, E15 is only sold at a fraction of gas stations nationwide. Increasing the supply won’t really do anything to lower the price of regular gas in the short term.” But Lee Zeldin says it will. Could all this hoopla about E15 just be a ploy to bamboozle the weak minded? Say it isn’t so!

“Even if you assume it will, because more people are choosing E15/88 so demand for the other grades goes down, that brings up the bigger problem,” The Drive says. “Ethanol is also a solvent that can eat away at delicate rubber seals and plastics in older engines, potentially causing major damage, which is one of the reasons why it’s usually capped at 10 percent.”

“The EPA even says you shouldn’t use it in cars made before 2001, though that important note is missing from the agency’s triumphant press release on the matter. Even in newer cars, E15 will lower MPGs because it’s less energy-dense than gas.”

Let The Bafflement Begin

A long time ago in a century far away, I used to practice law — until I found out it was eating my brain like the worm in RFK, Jr’s cranium. There was an expression common among lawyers back then that went something like this: “When the law and the facts are against you, baffle ’em with bullshit.” That seems to be precisely what Zeldin and his minions at EPA are doing. If you believe this E15 nonsense, we have a bridge in Brooklyn we would like to sell you.

As Apollo 13 mission commander Gene Krantz might say, “Tell me this isn’t a government operation.” With the level of incompetence at the highest levels of the US government, many wonder if the country will survive the assault on reason by the MAGAlomaniacs.

Hat tip to Dan Allard.