Relief at the Pump: The $110 Barrel, the $1.90/gallon Alternative, and the Calculus of Choice

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) ... Petroleum Independence Isn’t Price Independence -- The United States today produces roughly as much petroleum as it consumes. That’s a remarkable change from the oil-shock era of the 1970s.

Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing unlocked enormous domestic reserves. North Dakota, Texas, and New Mexico became energy powerhouses. The country achieved something that once seemed impossible: energy independence.

Oil is a global commodity. The price of crude is set in world markets. When geopolitical shocks push oil above $110 per barrel (as it has at this writing, the morning of March 9th), the price signal ripples through every refinery and every gasoline pump in America. Domestic drilling can increase supply. What it cannot do is instantly change the global price benchmark that determines what refiners pay for crude. In other words, even if every barrel were produced on American soil, Americans would still import the global price of oil.

Which brings us back to the pump. If gasoline prices are rising because oil prices are rising, relief must come from somewhere else in the fuel mix.

The $1.90 Gallon Molecule

The answer to our prayers does apparently begin with “E” but does not end with “V”. That “somewhere else” already exists, and it is ethanol.

This week ethanol is trading in the range of roughly $1.75 to $1.95 per gallon. Yes, ethanol contains less energy per gallon than gasoline. But price matters, and when oil surges past $110 per barrel, ethanol becomes one of the most powerful cost-moderating tools in the fuel supply.

Blending ethanol lowers the cost of finished gasoline. That’s been true for years. But it becomes especially important during oil price spikes. Put simply: ethanol dilutes expensive petroleum with lower-cost, lower-carbon domestic fuel. And that translates into lower prices at the pump.

The Case for Nationwide E15

Today most gasoline in America contains about 10 percent ethanol. But a growing number of stations offer E15, a blend containing 15 percent ethanol. Increasing the ethanol share accomplishes several things at once. First, it reduces reliance on petroleum — a useful hedge when geopolitical tensions tighten global oil markets.

Second, it lowers the average cost of the finished fuel blend. Third, it increases demand for a domestic fuel produced by American farmers and American biorefineries.

The infrastructure already exists. Millions of vehicles on the road today are approved to use E15. Retailers across the Midwest and increasingly across the country are installing E15 pumps. Yet federal rules governing seasonal fuel regulations still limit year-round nationwide availability.

In a moment when oil prices are spiking and consumers are looking for relief, nationwide year-round E15 begins to look less like a policy debate and more like common sense.

America’s Octane Advantage

In effect, ethanol isn’t just a substitute fuel. It’s the most efficient octane sources in the fuel system.

A National Security Fuel

When oil markets tighten, the geopolitical dimension becomes impossible to ignore.

Every gallon of ethanol blended into gasoline displaces a gallon of petroleum that might otherwise come from volatile regions or contested shipping lanes.

And they keep more energy dollars circulating within the U.S. economy and near cities in states such as Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana, Nebraska, the Dakotas, and Kansas — some of these states in political play in the coming months as voters undertake their task to rate the direction the country is headed and select leaders to advance their perceptions of the national interest.

The Practical Path Forward

Electrification will continue to expand. Batteries will improve. Charging networks will grow. But today more than 280 million vehicles on American roads run on liquid fuels.

For the foreseeable future, gasoline — and the blendstocks that make it — will remain central to transportation. Which means the fastest way to lower gasoline costs isn’t waiting decades for a complete transition. It’s improving the fuel mix we already use. That means recognizing the economic and strategic value of ethanol — particularly during moments when global oil markets are under stress. READ MORE

Excerpt from Renewable Fuels Association: The Renewable Fuels Association today (March 9, 2026) urged the Trump administration to take immediate action allowing broader use of lower-cost, American-made ethanol in the U.S. fuel supply to help blunt the impacts of higher crude oil and gasoline prices.

“Adding larger volumes of low-cost ethanol to gasoline is a proven solution for reducing fuel prices and helping to insulate the U.S. market from global supply shocks,” wrote RFA President and CEO Geoff Cooper in a letter to Interior Sec. Doug Burgum, who chairs the administration’s National Energy Dominance Council. “A series of simple deregulatory actions could rapidly unleash billions of gallons of additional fuel volume, providing relief at the pump for hardworking American families.”

Ethanol is selling at a significant discount to gasoline, Cooper noted. On March 6, ethanol was selling for $0.84 per gallon less than gasoline at the wholesale level—a discount of 31 percent. In recent days, E15 has been selling for $0.27 per gallon less than standard E10 gasoline.

“The most effective way to prevent additional increases in gas prices across the U.S. is by expanding and diversifying the domestic fuel supply, including ethanol made from our nation’s farm fields,” Cooper concluded. “Knocking down regulatory barriers and allowing E15 to be stored and distributed in existing infrastructure throughout the summer will lower fuel costs for Americans and strengthen the market’s resilience against global supply disruptions.” READ MORE