The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that it would temporarily allow widespread sales of a higher ethanol gas blend in a move that they hope will tamp down consumer prices that have soared since the Iran war began.
The higher blend has been prohibited in warm weather because of concerns it could worsen smog.
“President Trump is unleashing American Energy Dominance, and today’s action will directly lower prices at the pump and gives a clear demand signal to our domestic biofuels producers,” U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a statement.
The summer waiver for E15 has become commonplace in recent years, and both Republicans and Democrats have called for it to become year-round and permanent to lower prices at the pump. It's already allowed in some states: Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, Missouri, Wisconsin and most of South Dakota, according to the Renewable Fuels Association, an ethanol trade group. The association said it's also legal in cities that require reformulated gasoline, or gasoline blended with the intent to burn more cleanly.
In Kansas, Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids has requested and been granted emergency waivers for E15 for several years, from EPA administrations under presidents of both parties. This week U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, urged the Trump administration to take “a no-cost, immediate step” to curb rising domestic fuel costs amid the Iran war.
But not all are convinced the move will substantially lower gas prices. E15 isn't available in all states and some places don't have the necessary infrastructure or enough of a supply of ethanol to ramp up use, said Kenneth Gillingham, a professor at the Yale School of the Environment who studies the impacts of transportation regulations on prices, emissions and consumer welfare.
Gillingham also said the higher levels of corrosive ethanol in E15 can be a risk especially to older cars, boats and all-terrain vehicles.
More corn used for ethanol also means less can be used for animal feed, said Jason Hill, a professor at the University of Minnesota who studies food, energy markets and environmental consequences. That means consumers could be trading lower costs at the pump for higher costs at the grocery store.
“I think it’s difficult to see when the ledger's settled, how this is a benefit for U.S. consumers,” Hill said.
Hill said he thought the announcement was targeted more at farmers hit hard by higher prices for the diesel they use to run their equipment and by fertilizer price hikes caused by the Iran war. He said similar announcements have been made before as a way to express support for “agriculture and those who drive.”
Gillingham also said the move comes at a cost beyond economics.
”There’s more likely to be ozone issues in the summer and some people will die," he said. “It will lead to some earlier heart attacks and it will lead to some earlier respiratory issues that wouldn’t have been the case otherwise.”
The oil industry has generally opposed expansion of E15, arguing that biofuel blending is costly and raises gasoline prices. But a vice president at the American Petroleum Institute wrote in a statement that they supported this move. “By temporarily easing summer fuel requirements, this action helps ensure American consumers continue to have access to affordable, reliable energy,” Will Hupman said.
This story has been updated to correct U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids’ party affiliation. She is a Democrat, not a Republican.
Follow Melina Walling on X @MelinaWalling and Bluesky @melinawalling.bsky.social.
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FILE - A person fuels their vehicle at a gas station March 19, 2026, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, File)
FILE - Dave Thomas purchases gasoline at a station March 24, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley, File)
FILE - A shadow is reflected on new pumps at Rich Bohnen's service station in Minneapolis on Oct. 28, 2013. (Jeff Wheeler/Minnesota Star Tribune via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Transportation Security Administration may have to shut down operations at some airports as travelers are experiencing record waiting times, the agency's acting head said Wednesday, as the latest offer to end a funding impasse and put restraints on President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda met fierce resistance in Congress.
The TSA's Ha Nguyen McNeill described the mounting hardships facing unpaid airport workers — piling up bills and eviction notices, even plasma donations to make ends meet — and warned that lawmakers must ensure "this never happens again."
“This is a dire situation,” she testified at a House hearing, warning of potential airport closures. “At this point, we have to look at all options on the table. And that does require us to, at some point, make very difficult choices as to which airports we might try to keep open and which ones we might have to shut down as our callout rates increase.”
Yet on the 40th day of the standoff involving the Department of Homeland Security, there was no easy way out in sight. Neither Republican senators, who made the latest offer, nor Democrats, who are demanding more changes in immigration enforcement, appeared closer to a compromise.
Trump, who initially appeared to have given his nod to the deal, has declined to lend it his full support or put his political weight behind making sure it is approved.
Top officials at agencies under the DHS umbrella spoke for more than three-hours before the House Homeland Security Committee about the potential risks of security lapses unless the partial government shutdown comes to an end.
DHS has gone without routine funding since mid-February. Democrats are insisting on changes to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement and mass deportation operations after the killings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis by federal officers during protests.
The latest proposal would fund most of DHS except for the enforcement and removal operations of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that have been central to the debate. The plan would cover other aspects of ICE as well as Customs and Border Protection.
While the offer added some new restraints on immigration officers, including the use of body cameras, it excluded other policies that Democrats have demanded.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said they needed to see real changes. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York pressed for “bold” changes at ICE.
Republican leaders said Democrats are putting the country at risk.
“They know this is crazy," said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.
But conservative Republicans also panned the proposal, demanding full funding for immigration operations and skeptical of the promise from GOP leaders that they would address Trump's proof-of-citizenship voting bill in a subsequent legislative package.
McNeill, the acting TSA administrator, told lawmakers that multiple airports are experiencing greater than 40% callout rates and more than 480 transportation security officers have now quit during the shutdown.
She cited the growing financial strain on the TSA workforce.
“Some are sleeping in their cars, selling their blood and plasma, and taking on second jobs to make ends meet, all while being expected to perform at the highest level when in uniform to protect the traveling public,” she said.
McNeil also said TSA officers working at the nation’s airports have experienced a more than 500% increase in the frequency of assaults since the shutdown began.
“This is unacceptable and it will not be tolerated,” McNeill said.
The top executive overseeing Houston’s airport said security lines that have travelers waiting four hours or more could get longer if the political impasse was not soon settled.
Lines that twist and turn across multiple floors at George Bush Intercontinental Airport have been the result of TSA only being able to staff one-third to one-half the usual number of checkpoint lines, said Jim Szczesniak, aviation director for Houston’s airport system.
Trump’s decision to send ICE agents to the airports risks inflaming the situation, lawmakers have said. Video footage of federal officers detaining a crying woman at San Francisco International Airport drew outrage Monday from local officials, although it was unrelated to Trump's order to deploy immigration officers.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency's Disaster Relief Fund is “rapidly depleting,” Victoria Barton, a FEMA external affairs official, told lawmakers.
FEMA is able to continue its disaster response and recovery work as long as that fund has money, and about 10,000 of its disaster workers continue being paid through it.
Associated Press writers Wyatte Grantham-Philips in New York, Rio Yamat in Las Vegas, Russ Bynum in Houston and Gabriela Aoun Angueira in San Diego contributed to this report.
Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill, left, testifies as Nicholas Andersen, acting director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, right, listens during a House Committee on Homeland Security hearing on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, March 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Passengers and their bags are screened at a security checkpoint at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Wednesday, March 25, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Passengers wait in a security checkpoint line at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Wednesday, March 25, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Passengers wait in a security checkpoint line at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Wednesday, March 25, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
