WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is preparing to expand the opportunity for sales of higher-ethanol E15 gasoline this summer by waiving the fuel from U.S. volatility requirements, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Environmental Protection Agency is set to brief industry stakeholders on the planned approach Wednesday morning, said the people, who asked not to be named before a public announcement.

The move repeats a strategy President Donald Trump used in 2025 — and that was previously employed for three years under former President Joe Biden — to broaden the availability of E15 gasoline in summertime. It also comes as the Trump administration is taking steps to help ease energy costs for consumers amid the Iran war.

And it allows the president to deliver a win to an important political constituency — corn farmers, biofuel producers and rural voters — who have pushed for changes allowing year-round E15 sales. Some industry representatives have lobbied the EPA to clarify its plans for summer sooner, in time for filling stations and fuel distributors to adapt.

Under the approach, the EPA would issue emergency fuel waivers temporarily exempting E15 gasoline from volatility restrictions that effectively block warm-weather sales of the fuel in areas where smog is a problem.

Representatives of the EPA, when asked for comment, emphasized the agency’s efforts to restore “American energy dominance.”

“The Trump Administration has made great strides on this during his first year back in office,” the agency said in an emailed statement. “EPA is monitoring the supply with industry and federal partners.”

Biden first ordered such emergency waivers in 2022, casting it as a bid to lower fuel prices — in a midterm election year. Similar dynamics now confront Trump, eight months before November midterm elections that are expected to hinge on voters’ concerns about the cost of living. Oil and gasoline prices have spiked amid the war in the Middle East that has paralyzed the movement of millions of barrels of crude.

E15, which is made with 15% corn-based ethanol, generally runs cheaper per gallon than conventional E10 gasoline — though it’s also less energy dense. Since the heat of summer increases the evaporation of all liquids, including gasoline, the U.S. imposes more stringent limits between June 1 and Sept. 15 on Reid vapor pressure, the propensity for gasoline to evaporate and lead to smog.

Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA can waive those requirements to address shortages. But the emergency waivers previously have drawn criticism from some refiners that argued they haven’t been adequately justified.

This year, the Trump administration could cite ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Iran, as well as other geopolitical tensions as stoking unpredictability that warrants the temporary exemptions — a strategy urged by Midwest U.S. governors earlier this month.

For years, ethanol producers and some fuel refiners have been pushing for more permanent change.

They’ve pressed Congress to rewrite federal law and effectively extend an existing Reid vapor pressure exemption that applies to E10 gasoline so it also applies to E15. But efforts to broker a legislative compromise have repeatedly stalled, with a recent push complicated by a fight over how to exempt some refiners from annual biofuel-blending quotas.

A previous effort to make the shift through regulation also failed during Trump’s first term in the White House. At the time, the EPA finalized a rule that extended the E10 waiver to E15 — but a federal court tossed it out after a legal challenge by some refiners.

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(With assistance from Ari Natter.)

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