APRIL 3, 2026
File photo: A person fuels their vehicle at a gas station on March 19, 2026, in Baltimore.
President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced last month that it will allow U.S. refiners and retailers to supply two gasoline blends with more ethanol than usually allowed in the summer season – E15 and E10.
While E10, a gasoline blend mixed with 10 percent ethanol, is widely available across the country, the waiver for E15, a blend of gasoline mixed with 15 percent ethanol, will only impact a limited number of people. Newsweek has broken down where this may be.
Why It Matters
The EPA’s decision to temporarily allow wider summer sales of E15 gasoline is being framed as a nationwide effort to ease fuel costs—but its real-world impact is likely to be more limited and uneven.
It comes as ongoing conflict in the Middle East, which has disrupted transit through the crucial Strait of Hormuz, has caused crude oil prices to jump over $100 per barrel since the U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran on February 28.
What To Know
E15 can now be sold during the summer driving season under an emergency waiver announced this week, aimed at boosting fuel supply and lowering prices. But while the policy applies across the country, access to E15 remains restricted by infrastructure and geography.
Gas Buddy’s Patrick De Haan warned that the waiver for E15, called also called Unleaded 88 or Regular 88, is only available at around 3 percent of all gas stations across the country.
“So this is probably not going to impact most Americans,” De Haan said. “E15 generally is 10 cents to 20 cents cheaper, but a gas station has to have special equipment to be able to offer that fuel,” he told Virginia NBC affiliate WAVY-TV. “So, a lot of Americans probably still aren’t going to be able to take advantage of this E15 exemption.”
According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data Center, just over 3,000 stations nationwide sell E15—out of roughly 145,000 retail fuel outlets, according to FuelAmerica. That means the vast majority of drivers will not encounter the blend at their local pump.
There is no comprehensive federal database specifically tracking E15 availability – the Department of Energy’s station locator does not allow users to filter for E15.
But availability is clearly present in the Midwest—last February, the states of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin successfully pushed for a rule change to allow year-round E15 sales, underscoring how demand and infrastructure for the fuel are clustered in the region.
What People Are Saying
Gas Buddy’s Patrick De Haan said: “It probably won’t help in a significant degree. De Haan said. “The president has very small levers to have any big impacts on [gas] prices.”
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin told reporters at S&P Global’s CERAWeek conference in Houston, Texas, as reported by CNBC: “EPA waivers will work to prevent disruption in America’s fuel supply by keeping E15 and E10 on the market and giving Americans more fuel options.
“We will continue to monitor the supply with industry and federal partners. The agency will be ready to extend the emergency fuel waivers as ongoing issues continue to present the need for action.”
What Happens Next
Any price or supply benefits of the waiver are likely to remain uneven, shaped by where E15 is actually available.
Come down once the conflict in the Middle East ends and transit through the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries one-fifth of the world’s oil, is re-established.
Courtesy/Source: Newsweek
