So weird that this really politically devastating decision would kick in at precisely the moment it would least likely hurt Joe Biden, right?
The Biden administration is expected to ease seasonal restrictions on ethanol-gasoline blends but has delayed the change until after the 2024 election to avoid a price spike, according to Reuters.
Hmmm.
It's a little suspicious, right? Just odd.
Corn-based ethanol, as you probably know, is regularly mixed into gasoline as a fuel additive under the assumption that it's better for the environment. There are signs that it may be significantly more "carbon-intensive" than previously imagined, and moreover it gets you worse gas mileage, which sort of compounds the problem.
Still, the harebrained scheme to get it into more of our car engines continues. The current proposed rule change "stems from a 2022 request from the governors of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin" to allow the sale of 15% ethanol gas year-round rather than only in the summer. These are the big corn-producing states. Economic leaders want access to those fuel tanks 24/7/365.
Yet the federal government apparently decided, for some reason, that its original timeline wasn't satisfactory enough:
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had originally set an effective date of April 28, 2024, for the changes when the agency sent the proposal to the White House in December, but that is now expected to be pushed back to 2025.
Biden trying to kick that political fallout away like:
The new rule "would only affect midwestern states," though I can't imagine Biden wants to "affect" Wisconsin and Minnesota all that much prior to this November. He's got to hedge his bets in the battleground states.
The decision, according to Reuters, "will likely be bittersweet for the biofuel industry, which wants to expand sales of corn-based ethanol but might be frustrated by the 2025 start date."
I'm sure we'll all be frustrated by that start date when it finally comes around.
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