$100 million in biofuel infrastructure grants from the USDA are being offered to increase the availability of ethanol and biodiesel across the U.S.
Helena Jette, Biofuels Director with the Indiana Corn Marketing Council and the Indiana Soybean Alliance, says that investment will ultimately benefit Indiana’s corn and soybean farmers.
“This is a huge win for biofuels and the renewable fuels space here in Indiana,” says Jette, who says biofuels are a huge part of Indiana’s ag economy.
“We represent over 20,000 Indiana farmers in this space,” says Jette. “[With] ethanol, for example, half of the Indiana corn crop goes to ethanol production. We [have] 14 ethanol plants here in Indiana, which equivalents to about 1.2 billion gallons of ethanol. We’re in the top seven percent of production [for ethanol] in the United States.”
Jette says with that USDA grant money, she’s helping to lead the charge to grow the number of places across Indiana where biofuels are available.
“I can go out and inform the ‘mom-and-pops,’ [as well as] the medium-to-large sized convenience stores [that they have] up to $5 million to do infrastructure, whether that’s underground storage tank upgrades, whether that’s above ground infrastructure like dispensers, pumps and nozzles. All of these things to help push American farmers to be able to get more money in their pocket by selling their corn to ethanol plants, and then ultimately, having retailers sell more ethanol at their locations to also include biodiesel, so it is a ‘win-win’ for Indiana,” says Jette.
She says if you own or operate a retail fuel facility and would like to apply for these biofuel expansion grants, she’s here to help.
“I can facilitate any parties interested in applying for the grant,” says Jette. “Biofuels [and] renewable fuels are not going away. They’re going to be here for many, many decades to come, so invest now, get your equipment squared away, get it into compliance if it’s coming up to expiration. Reach out to myself to help guide you on that path to make sure that you are set up for success.
Click BELOW to hear C.J. Miller’s news report on how Indiana farmers will benefit from $100 million in biofuel infrastructure grants from the USDA.
Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio