As USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack was handing out Higher Blends Infrastructure Incentive Program (HBIIP) grants in Minnesota on Friday, the manager of that program was being honored by the American Coalition for Ethanol at their annual meeting in Omaha, where the Secretary had been just the day before.
Jeff Carpenter, who has managed the HBIIP program under USDA Rural Development since 2021, was presented with the ACE Paul Dana Marketing Vision award for his leadership in promoting the expansion of higher blends of ethanol. “I’m surprised, you know, as a federal employee a lot of times we just kind of go with the flow and or behind the scenes,” said Carpenter. “I don’t always like attention, but it’s an honor. It’s certainly unexpected and it means a lot to me.”
Carpenter says the HBIIP program has been very successful and very beneficial to retailers, consumers, and the ethanol industry, so he expects it will continue into the next administration, whatever that will be.
“HBIIP came out under the Trump administration, it was expanded under the Biden administration,” said Carpenter. “There’s a lot of strong bipartisan support from from the Senate and Congress so I think there’s a good opportunity for additional funding. I think the need is there, especially as you know some of the EV push has maybe fallen a little flatter than expected. That kind of puts the shining light back on liquid fuels if they’re gonna need to be around longer than maybe it was originally thought.”
Listen to my interview with Jeff Carpenter.
ACE 24 Jeff Carpenter, USDA 3:44
Carpenter gave a presentation on HBIIP at the ACE Conference and participated in a panel discussion with ACE’s Ron Lamberty and Randy Gard, Bosselman Enterprises.
ACE 24 Higher Blends Infrastructure panel and awards 57:34