How Trump (and Iowa) Changed How You Fuel Your Car

Ethanol, the intoxicating alcohol found in beer, wine and liquor, has been powering automobiles in the U.S. since the era of the Model T more than a century ago. Since the 1970s, when oil became more expensive and subject to international disputes -- and as worries rose about the environmental damage caused by fossil fuels -- the U.S. government has used tax policy and regulations to encourage use of ethanol and other environmentally friendly alternatives to gasoline. (Ethanol provides oxygen, making gasoline burn more cleanly in engines.) U.S. President Donald Trump has made it easier to sell more ethanol, even as opponents raise environmental concerns with the corn-based fuel.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which regulates air pollution from gasoline, changed U.S. policy to allow the sale of so-called E15 fuel -- so-called because it contains 15% ethanol and 85% gasoline -- year-round. Until now, the sale of E15 has been blocked from June 1 to September 15 in areas where smog is a problem. That three-and-a-half-month blackout period deterred some retailers from offering E15 at all, since they’d need to change pumps and warning labels at the start and end of each summer. Trump ordered the EPA to waive E15 from air-pollution requirements.