Pete Ricketts

Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., urged the Senate to clear House-passed legislation to allow year-round sales of E15 ethanol blends, telling Newsmax on Wednesday that the higher-ethanol fuel is a "win-win-win" that can blunt pump prices driven up by the U.S.-Iran conflict.

Ricketts, appearing on "National Report," said the blend "helps clean up the environment, whether it's carbon emissions, particulate emissions, and it's also great for farmers and ranchers in my home state of Nebraska," which he called Nebraska's "number one industry."

"Right now, when you see what's going on in the Middle East, consumers are seeing gas prices go up," Ricketts said. "This is a homegrown solution that can help mitigate some of that increase in gas prices by using renewable fuels to bring that price back down a bit."

The national average for regular gasoline sat at $4.29 a gallon Tuesday, off May highs above $4.50 but still roughly 50% above the $2.98 average just before the war.

The House passed H.R. 1346, the Nationwide Consumer and Fuel Retailer Choice Act, 218-203 on May 13. The bill would amend the Clean Air Act to lift the June 1 to Sept. 15 Reid vapor pressure ceiling, which blocks summer E15 sales without EPA waivers.

It now needs 60 votes in the Senate, where Ricketts sits on the Foreign Relations and Budget panels.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., opposed the bill, and the CBO pegged the 10-year deficit impact at about $2.3 billion.

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