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“Not a mandate on car manufacturers”

Well, Why Biden is allowing more ethanol in gasoline

The Biden administration says it will suspend a federal rule that bars higher levels of ethanol in gasoline during the summer
April 12, 2022

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration says it will suspend a federal rule that bars higher levels of ethanol in gasoline during the summer. The move, which President Joe Biden was set to announce during a Tuesday visit to Iowa, is intended to tamp down prices at the pump that have spiked during Russia’s war with Ukraine. Iowa is a key producer of the corn-based fuel additive.

A look at how that the decision to authorize year-round use of so-called E15 will impact gas supplies, prices and the environment.

WHAT ACTION IS BIDEN TAKING?

“Most gasoline sold in the U.S. is blended with 10% ethanol. At Biden’s direction, the Environmental Protection Agency will issue an emergency waiver to allow widespread sale of 15% ethanol blend that is usually prohibited between June 1 and Sept. 15 because of concerns that it adds to smog in high temperatures.

Senior Biden administration officials said the move will save drivers an average of 10 cents per gallon at 2,300 gas stations that sell E15, as the high-blend ethanol is known. Those stations are mostly in the Midwest and the South, including Texas, according to industry groups.”

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/explainer-biden-allowing-ethanol-gasoline-84036558

Also, The Shocking Truth About America’s Ethanol Law

“This argument over the virtues and evils of ethanol focuses on one particular law: the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), which requires that gasoline manufacturers purchase large and, until this year, ever-growing amounts of ethanol, which they then blend into the nation’s fuel supply. (True insiders will protest that gas companies can buy renewable fuel credits, called RINs, instead of ethanol, but the ethanol-boosting effect is the same in either case. So we’ll stay away from that rabbit hole.) As you might expect, corn farmers and ethanol producers helped push this law through Congress.

Does Your Gas Tank Hold Enough Food To Feed 22 People?

If you oppose government interventions in the free market, as Cruz does, the RFS is an outrage. “End the Ethanol Rip-Off,” wrote author Robert Bryce in The New York Times last year. He pointed out that a gallon of ethanol delivers only two-thirds as much energy as a gallon of pure petroleum-based gasoline, and as a result, we’re paying about twice as much for that ethanol, per unit of energy, as for petroleum-derived gasoline. The loser, he says, is the American consumer, to the tune of about $10 billion each year.”
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/02/10/466010209/the-shocking-truth-about-americas-ethanol-law-it-doesnt-matter-for-now

ADDENDUM: STATUTORY AUTHORITIES TITLES 23 and 49, UNITED STATES CODE

-https://www.nhtsa.gov/laws-regulations/statutory-authorities

-Motor Vehicle Safety - May 2013

-Highway Safety - May 2013

PART C - Information, Standards, and Requirements - May 2013

FIXING AMERICA’S SURFACE TRANSPORTATION ACT (FAST Act)

- The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, or “FAST Act,” was signed into law on December 4, 2015. The FAST Act authorized $2.7 billion in funding for the Section 402 Highway Safety Programs and Section 405 National Priority Safety Programs for fiscal years 2016 through 2020.

MOVING AHEAD FOR PROGRESS IN THE 21ST CENTURY ACT

MAP-21, as enacted (July 6, 2012; P.L. 112-141) (Text, PDF) (the PDF version totals 584 pages)
-Highway Safety Provisions (for reading or copying — counting the first page of MAP-21 as page #1 — see pages 328 - 353 of the PDF)
-Open container, repeat offenders, and adjustments to highway safety penalty provisions (for reading or copying, see pages 152 – 156 of the PDF)
-Extension of NHTSA’s Highway Safety Programs — through fiscal year 2012 (for reading, see pages 577 – 578 of the PDF; for copying [due to a glitch in the document], copy pages 981 – 982 of the PDF)
-Motor Vehicle Safety Provisions (for reading or copying — counting the first page of MAP-21 as page #1, see pages 353 - 372 of the PDF)
-Motorcoach Safety (for reading, see pages 405 – 411 of the PDF; for copying [due to a glitch in the document], copy pages 809 – 815 of the PDF)
-Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Research (for reading, see pages 493 – 501 of the PDF; for copying [due to a glitch in the document], copy pages 897 – 905 of the PDF)

MOTOR VEHICLE SAFETY - May 2008

- Authority to Promulgate Safety Standards for Retrofitting Commercial Motor Vehicles and Equipment (HTML, PDF)

- National Driver Register - May 2006 (HTML | PDF)

HIGHWAY SAFETY - May 2008

PART C - Information, Standards, and Requirements - May 2008

Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act (SAFETEA)

- SAFETEA-LU, as enacted (Aug. 10, 2005; P.L. 109-59) (HTML, PDF)
- Motor Vehicle Safety Provisions (HTML, PDF)
- Highway Safety Provisions (HTML, PDF)