Trump to the rescue for California drivers — despite Gavin Newsom

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Key points

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• The EPA's waiver will allow E10 to be blended at a higher Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP), meaning that the process will employ less gasoline.
• Gavin Newsom and the state Legislature are trying everything they can to growth the cost of gas at the pump for Californians.
• Those closures will limit the positive impact in California of what Zeldin and Wright are doing.
• Now the Trump administration has stepped in to provide some relief to Californians and their wallets.

Raising taxes and forcing the closure of refineries are their tools to punish drivers who are just trying to obtain to work or to the grocery store.

According to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has, starting on Sept. 1, hand-in-hand with the Department of Energy (DOE), he will matter a temporary emergency waiver of the Clean Air Act (CAA). The waiver will allow what is known as E10 to be blended differently.

E10 is gasoline blended with 10% ethanol. The EPA's waiver will allow E10 to be blended at a higher Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP), meaning that the process will employ less gasoline. The effect will be to growth the gasoline supply and lower gasoline costs.

Ethanol is in common employ throughout America. Plenty of residents are not aware there are two different blends, a summer and winter blend. The summer blend burns faster, using more fuel. This waiver issued by the EPA will allow for an earlier conversion to the winter blend – again, saving gas. Sign up for the California Morning Report newsletter.

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Normally, the summer blend ends on Sept. 15 for most of the country. Not in California, where the summer blend (without the waiver) has to be produced for much longer, only ending on Oct. 31.

In practice, the EPA's new waiver could mean that Californians will have extra two months of a form of gasoline that lasts far longer in their gas tank and costs less to produce.

We know that the environmental lobby will howl at this change; it opposes almost everything the Trump administration does. But the waiver appears to have been reviewed properly by the EPA and DOE, according to powers of discretion that were written into law by Congress.

Until now, California authorities have additionally done everything they can to resist efforts by the Trump administration to growth fuel supplies and lower costs. They are fighting his effort to develop offshore oil and gas production, for example. Notably, these same authorities ignored President Joe Biden's attempts to lower gas costs with interventions that were actually damaging to the country's long-term interests, such as draining the strategic petroleum reserves. If Trump does it, it must be wrong, even if it helps California drivers and the California economy generally.

Here's the thing: California is running out of alternatives. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright created the point that the Trump administration's strategy is focused on increasing the available supply of gasoline. Gov. Newsom has done the opposite during his two terms in office. Three oil refineries closed in California during the first six years of Newsom's tenure. Two more are scheduled to close. It at present account for 18% of the state's refining capacity.

Those closures will limit the positive impact in California of what Zeldin and Wright are doing. Since it has imposed stricter environmental requirements on fuel, so will the fact that California blends most of its gasoline within its own borders. So any changes to the national blend will have fewer benefits for the Golden State.

As if half a century of diversification and domestic production had never happened, meanwhile, California has become a cartoon image of America in the 1970s – totally dependent on shipments of oil from the Middle East.

While the state is fighting the oil industry, and Trump on all fronts, California drivers are suffering at the pump. At least the Trump administration is making an effort to support Californians, even if their elected office-holders and bureaucrats don't seem to care.

Bruce Bialosky, a former presidential appointee, is a certified public accountant specializing in taxes.

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For now, trump to the rescue for California drivers remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.