Statewide Iowa — Iowa’s two U.S. senators are introducing new legislation they say will bring an immediate lowering of gasoline prices while boosting biofuel production.
Senator Joni Ernst says President Biden’s announcement Tuesday to ban Russian oil imports didn’t take advantage of the domestic fuel option, but instead Biden lauded the use of electric vehicles, a policy Ernst calls “reckless.”
Ernst, a Republican, says the Homefront Energy Independence Act has bipartisan support and would put the ban on Russian oil into law while combining several other efforts from previous bills.
Ernst says gasoline prices are at record high levels, topping four dollars a gallon in many states, and she says the solution is simple: backing biofuels.
Senator Chuck Grassley quotes Triple-A in saying gasoline prices nationally are averaging four-dollars and 17 cents a gallon, surpassing all-time records set in July of 2008. Grassley, a Republican, disagrees with the administration “begging OPEC to send us more oil” while releasing billions of gallons from the strategic petroleum reserve.
Grassley says domestic biofuels provide the quick and easy answer the country needs by immediately slashing prices at the pump.
Triple-A-Iowa shows gasoline prices are averaging $3.89 a gallon statewide, which is still shy of the Iowa record average of $4.02 set in July of 2008. In the past week, gas prices in Iowa have risen 46-cents a gallon on average, and they’ve risen 60-cents in the past month. A year ago, gas was averaging $2.76 in Iowa, a dollar-13 below the current price.
