Every time President Joe Biden’s knee jerks and he proposes a new policy to offset the economic backlash from one of his previous policies, he sets the stage to have to fix his latest fix.
Everyone knows that Biden entered the White House as a fossil fuel “hater.” He wants to transition away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy. And he doesn’t mind how much it costs taxpayers to do it.
Hence, he canceled the Keystone XL pipeline his first day in office, has imposed more restrictions on building new pipelines, and created new roadblocks for drilling on public lands and offshore.
Biden’s—not Russian President Vladimir Putin’s—policies started pushing up the price of gasoline months ago. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine only added to Biden’s gas-flation.
But forcing consumers to pay more at the pump means Democrats will pay at the polls in November. So, Biden has been looking for gasoline price-reducing options. And he’s found one.
According to Politico: “In a speech this afternoon in (where else?) Iowa, Biden will announce a forthcoming waiver by EPA Administrator Michael Regan that would lift a ban on the summertime sale of E15, which is gasoline mixed with 15% ethanol.”
Politico adds: “The move is a big win for corn-state farmers and lawmakers, who have been pushing for this for some time. But it’s also a tangible change that Biden can point at to show he’s working to ease pain at the pump.” (Bold type in original)
Since ethanol is currently a little cheaper than gasoline—for that matter, what isn’t?—increasing the ethanol blend might lower the price per gallon consumers have to pay.
But wait! Aren’t we expecting some global food shortages as a result of supply chain snarls and especially Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? Aren’t we reading that food shortages may result in widespread starvation is some countries?
The corn used in ethanol is field corn (for animals) and makes up 99 percent of U.S. corn production. The sweet corn we put on our tables represents only 1 percent of the U.S. corn crop.
The U.S. is the world’s largest producer and exporter of corn. And like many commodities, the price of corn has been rising—up 28.87 percent over last year, which was up 22.57 percent over the year before, according to Macrotrends.
So Biden’s new bad policy, which is an attempt to fix a previous bad policy, could mean slightly lower U.S. gasoline prices—but more global hunger.