U.S. not to finalize gasoline sale, may agree to compensate by declining enforcement

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will probably not be able to finalize its rule allowing year-round sales of higher ethanol blends of gasoline by summer, but could compensate by declining to enforce the current summer-time ban, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump had directed the EPA last year to allow summer-time sales of so-called E15 by summer as a way of helping corn farmers that supply the ethanol industry, but the process was hindered by a weeks-long partial government shutdown that put many EPA staff on furlough.