Now Biden Wants To Pass (Ethanol) Gas (Tax Hike)?

Don’t laugh. President Biden crowed about shaving pennies off the spiraling cost of gasoline at the pump by dipping into the nation’s oil reserves; but then proposed to raise the ethanol gas tax & impose bigger renewable fuel mandates that WSJ says “may put refiners out of business.”

Say, what? It’s not that complicated. As Mr. Biden’s two cents savings unfolded, the editors noted his EPA “was proposing changes to the renewable fuel standard – aka the ethanol mandate – that will raise them.” You’ll recall how the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act requires gasoline sold in the US to contain “increasing volumes of renewable fuel. EPA assigns refiners & importers annual quotas they must blend into gasoline or diesel. Those that don’t meet their quotas must buy credits from others to comply” or else. While the corn-ethanol mandate for 2020 thru 2022 was scaled back, it wants to raise mandates next year for cellulosic ethanol, biodiesel and advanced biofuels and wants to stop exemptions for the 65 small refineries that need them to survive the competition from the oil giants (who, btw, are whole hog behind the EPA on this one).

The WSJ concedes “Big Ethanol” denies these mandate proposals will raise gas prices yet argues “compliance alone is adding about 14 cents to refiners’ cost per gallon of gasoline & diesel.” Another irony, if not policy contradiction, that’s a head scratcher: “The ethanol mandate also contributes to higher food prices. About 40% of the US corn crop is now used to produce ethanol, which increases corn prices, which raises meat prices.” How much for a pound of hamburger now?

Davd Soul