Closing summary
We’re closing the US politics blog now, following Joe Biden’s announcement in Iowa seeking to lower gas prices amid the nation’s worst inflation crisis in more than 40 years.
The president said the move to allow sales of higher ethanol E15 gasoline this summer, following the relaxing of federal laws, could save families 10 cents a gallon, although the fuel will not be widely available nationwide.
Thanks for joining us today. Our live blog on the New York subway shooting will continue for a while here, and you can follow developments in the Ukraine-Russia war on our 24-hour live blog here.
Here’s where else our day went:
- Biden and British prime minister Boris Johnson spoke by phone to assert their joint commitment to support Ukraine with humanitarian aid and military equipment.
- Biden was briefed on the New York subway shooting before he boarded Air Force One to Iowa, with press secretary Jen Psaki tweeting that senior administration officials are offering local authorities their support.
- The Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt signed a law outlawing abortion in the Republican state.
- New York’s lieutenant governor Brian Benjamin was arrested for bribery and wire fraud.
Biden seeks lower gas prices with waiver for summer E15 sales
Joe Biden is preparing to speak at a bioprocessing plant in Menlo, Iowa, to announce that he’s waiving a federal rule banning summer sales of E15 gasoline - fuel with a higher blend of ethanol than regular gas - in an effort to bring down prices at the pump.
The president is pledging to lower energy costs after blaming the Ukraine war, and in particular the Russian president Vladimir Putin, for soaring prices affecting American families. Earlier today, it was announced US inflation reached 8.5% in March, its worst level in more than 40 years.
Biden will speak after touring the plant in the corn-rich state, where even Republicans seem to be on board with his plans. Biden insists the sale of plant-based E15 during the summer, during which it is usually banned because it creates denser levels of smog in higher temperatures, could save families 10 cents a gallon.
“Homegrown Iowa biofuels provide a quick and clean solution for lowering prices at the pump, and bolstering production would help us become energy independent once again,” the Iowa Republican senator Chuck Grassley said, according to the Associated Press.
Grassley was among nine Republican and seven Democratic senators from midwestern states who sent Biden a letter last month urging him to allow year-round E15 sales, the AP said.
Industry groups, however, doubt the impact of the plan. E15, they say, will be available only at about 2,300 of the nation’s more than 100,000 gas stations, concentrated in the Midwest and the South, including Texas.
