Grants totaling $100 million will be available to install or retrofit fuel pumps and storage tanks to handle higher blends of corn ethanol and biodiesel than now commonly offered, said the USDA, with details to be available by mid-spring. “USDA will continue to do its part to encourage the use of home-grown energy,” said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue.
The so-called Higher Blends Infrastructure Incentive Program will provide cost-share grants and incentives to install pumps, related equipment and infrastructure at fueling stations, convenience stores, fleet facilities and fuel terminals for biodiesel. Higher blends include E15, a 15 percent blend of ethanol with gasoline, and B20, a 20 percent of biodiesel blended with conventional diesel fuel.
Growth Energy, an ethanol trade group, said higher-blend pumps were installed at more than 2,000 retail locations under an earlier USDA grant program, aided by private funding. “Secretary Perdue’s announcement today helps propel higher biofuel blends into the next decade, and Prime the Pump’s retail partners are ready to embrace this new wave of growth,” said Emily Skor, chief executive of Growth Energy.
By one estimate, there are roughly 111,000 gas stations in the country.
Perdue also said USDA would buy alternative fueled vehicles that can burn E85 or biodiesel when replacing conventionally fueled vehicles in its fleet. The USDA owns 37,000 vehicles and replaces about 3,000 each year.