On 31 August 2026, the US Environmental Protection Agency granted refiners the largest exemption from renewable fuel blending obligations since 2017. The following day, the White House summoned those same companies over rising fuel prices and called for an investigation into price manipulation. Two levers in opposing directions within twenty-four hours. This research does not ask who is right in the dispute, but poses a more precise and less discussed question: the pump price is a chain of four links — crude, refining, distribution and tax — so which link has actually grown, and which levers available to a president reach it at all?
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