President Joe Biden privately acknowledged his effort to boost biofuel production to combat gasoline prices was pointless before unveiling the policy in April, The Washington Post reported.
The president complained to senior staff that issuing an emergency waiver to allow the sale of gasoline with higher ethanol through the summer months would be ineffective, two people familiar with the private White House discussion who requested anonymity told WaPo on Monday. [bold, links added]
Biden also questioned whether his trip to Menlo, Iowa, promoting the policy was necessary despite promising it would lower prices.
“With this waiver, on June 1, you’re not going to show up at your local gas station and see a bag over the pump that has the cheapest gas. You’re going to be able to keep filling up with E15,” Biden remarked during an event at a Menlo bioprocessing facility on April 12. “And it’s going to solve a whole problem.”
Before the Iowa trip, Biden expressed concern that the White House was exaggerating the ethanol waiver’s impact on soaring gasoline prices, WaPo reported.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and other senior administration officials pushed Biden to move forward with the trip, though, saying it would at least help the Midwest.
But pump prices in the Midwest have surged nearly 24%, from $3.89 to $4.82 per gallon since April 11, the day before Biden’s ethanol announcement, federal data showed.
The average price of gasoline nationwide hit an all-time record of $5.01 a gallon on Monday, according to AAA data.
Experts and fossil fuel industry groups also criticized the ethanol gambit as an ineffective approach to record gas prices facing consumers. The policy only affects 1.5% of U.S. gas stations and the White House said it would save Americans with access to those stations just 10 cents per gallon.
In addition, food industry groups said the action would place upward pressure on grocery prices which have, like energy costs, surged over the last 12 months.
“Further and artificial demand for corn created by this administration will likely increase the cost of corn and all food products dependent on corn and corn oil inputs,” Mike Brown, president of industry group the National Chicken Council, told The Daily Caller News Foundation at the time.
“What it does at the gas pump we shall see … but at what expense to consumers in the grocery store who are already dealing with the highest inflation in 40 years.”
“At the end of the day – ethanol manufacturers win and consumers lose,” Brown continued.
Read rest at Daily Caller
Ethanol costs more to produce than standard gasoline. So how could it ever decrease the price of gasoline? Only our genius elites running the show would think we are stupid enough to believe more of their lies.
It’s obvious that the American economy cannot survive with Biden and his green new deal it’s an agenda to steal the wealth, liberty and future happiness of all Americans. Wow increasing ethanol from 10% to 15% big whoop! Biden is just a synonym for tyranny.
Biden’s ethanol stunt is just a smoke screen. In addition to the points in the article, another factor decreasing the effectiveness of ethanol on prices is it gets fewer miles per gallon. That is because it contains oxygen and is already partially combusted. If Biden truly wants to do something about prices he would reverse the policies he has enacted since coming to office. This would include issuing oil leases on land with road access and issuing permits to drill on that land. However, his green agenda calls for gasoline and diesel prices to be much higher than they are now.