USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced plans to invest up to $500 million from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act to increase the availability of domestic biofuels and give Americans additional cleaner fuel options at the pump.
Joined by Minnesota Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, Vilsack announced the first awardees of 59 infrastructure projects that will receive a total of $25 million of the $50 million in Inflation Reduction Act funding USDA made available in December 2022 to expand the use and availability of higher-blend biofuels through the Higher Blends Infrastructure Incentive Program (HBIIP).
Over $8 million of the initial awards went to Minnesota projects, including the Farmers Cooperative Oil Company, which will use a $623,500 grant to replace nine E85 dispensers, two B20 dispensers, two ethanol storage tanks and two biodiesel storage tanks at a fueling station in Barnesville. The project is expected to increase annual sales of biofuels by nearly 122,000 gallons.
In addition, USDA announced today that in July the Department will begin accepting applications for $450 million in grants through HBIIP. These grants will continue to support the infrastructure needed to lower out-of-pocket costs for transportation fueling and distribution facilities to install and upgrade biofuel-related infrastructure such as pumps, dispensers and storage tanks.
Listen to the announcement here, along with comments from the senators and media questions including the new tariff imposed by Mexico on white corn, and worsening drought conditions in the Midwest.
USDA press call on biofuels funding 36:34