With gas prices hovering near record highs, President Joe Biden appears to be throwing ideas at the wall to see what will stick and bring some relief to Americans.
Last month, he announced a plan to release one million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve every day for the next sixth months.
Now the president is making an exception to the Clean Air Act to try to further bring down gas prices.
According to NPR, “President Biden will announce Tuesday that his administration will temporarily allow E15 gasoline — gasoline that uses a 15% ethanol blend that is typically banned from sale from June to September — to be sold this summer, a measure intended to help ease gas prices on a day when inflation hit its highest monthly figure in 40 years.”
E15 is prohibited from being sold during the summer due to the Clear Air Act and concerns about air pollution.
While the move is meant to alleviate pain at the pump, the outlet notes, “The impact on gas prices remains to be seen. Compared with E10 gas, there is limited infrastructure to sell E15 gasoline because not all vendors are willing to invest in a product that cannot be sold year-round.”
CNN explains that E15 “is meant to be a cleaner form of gasoline because it includes biofuel – which is considered ‘carbon neutral’ – and it does burn cleaner than 100% gasoline. But using it actually creates more ground-level air pollution.”
It’s estimated that the move could bring gas prices down by about 10 cents.
As of Tuesday, AAA reports that the national average price of gas is $4.09 per gallon, which is down from $4.32.
Biden’s latest move is just another sign that Democrats recognize they’re going to be in deep trouble in November if gas prices don’t budge.
The president has tried blaming oil companies and Russian President Vladimir Putin for high gas prices, but a CBS News/YouGov poll released on Sunday shows that a majority of Americans believe he can do more to address price spikes.
Sixty-five percent of respondents said they believe he can do more, while 35% say he is “doing all he can.”
And a majority of Americans believe the national economy is in “bad” shape.
According to the poll, 82% pointed to higher gas prices as their reason for believing the economy is not doing well.
It is worth pointing out that presidents typically do not have too much control over gas prices. Additionally, so far there has been little evidence to suggest that Biden’s energy policies limited oil production in the U.S.
While Biden is taking steps to bring prices down, it probably does not help his case that tone-deaf video clips continue to surface of Biden administration officials talking about how higher gas prices can be used to precipitate a transition to renewable energy.
That only fuels the belief that the administration is not doing everything it can to address gas prices.
One easy step Biden could take is to tell his Cabinet and other administration officials to stop suggesting that a crisis could be used in the push to transition away from fossil fuels.