During an address at the Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit Thursday, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced the awarding of $19 million in grants to increase the availability of domestic biofuels at gas stations in 22 states. The awards are being made through the Higher Blends Infrastructure Incentive Program (HBIIP) with funding from Inflation Reduction Act.
Some of examples of the grants include:
Casey’s will use a $5 million grant to install ethanol blend fuel dispensers at 111 fueling stations in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota. Using these investments, the company aims to increase the amount of biofuels it supplies by 50 million gallons a year.
Piasa Enterprises Inc. in Illinois will use a $200,000 grant to install two 30,000-gallon biodiesel storage tanks and associated piping at their Hartford fuel distribution center. The company projects an increase in the amount of biodiesel sold by 2 million gallons per year
In Maryland, AC&T Inc. will install two ethanol fuel dispensers and one ethanol storage tank. Through this project, AC&T owners aim to expand the amount of ethanol they supply by over 106,000 gallons a year.
States receiving grants are Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin.
During his visit to the Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit in Altoona, Secretary Vilsack was awarded the Lifetime Champion of Renewable Fuels Award by the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA). This is only the second time this prestigious honor has been awarded. The first recipient, Gov. Terry Branstad, received the award in 2017 as he was transitioning from the governors office to be the U.S. ambassador to China.
“Sec. Vilsack has been an outstanding and unrelenting champion of renewable fuels throughout his career as a state legislator, governor and now USDA secretary,” said IRFA Executive Director Monte Shaw. “Looking at Sec. Vilsack’s entire career, it is clear he understands not just the economic value of biofuels, but the intrinsic values of hope and confidence in the future they provide for rural America.”