USDA Accepting Applications for $100 Million Biofuels Infrastructure Partnership

Federal funding designed to support infrastructure for making more renewable fuels available to consumers.

June 17, 2015

WASHINGTON – As previously reported in NACS Daily, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a $100 million state grant program under its Biofuels Infrastructure Partnership (BIP). Following up on USDA’s announcement, the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) issued a release that all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., may now apply for the grants.

Through BIP, USDA will award competitive grants, matched by states, to expand the infrastructure for distribution of higher blends of renewable fuels. These competitive grants are available to support infrastructure funding. States that offer funding equal to or greater than that provided by the federal government will receive higher consideration for grant funds. States may work with private entities to enhance their offer.

As published in the Federal Register, The CCC funds must be used to pay a portion of the costs related to the installation of fuel pumps and related infrastructure dedicated to the distribution of higher ethanol blends, such E15 and E85, at vehicle fueling locations that include, but are not limited to, local fueling stations, convenience stores, hypermarkets or fleet facilities. The matching contributions may be used for these items or for additional related BIP costs such as additional infrastructure to support pumps, marketing, education, data collection, program evaluation and administrative costs associated with the application process.

The federal funds made available under the program may only be used for infrastructure to support higher ethanol blend utilization, including:

  • Blender pumps that can dispense a range of ethanol blends including E85 (new pumps or retrofit of existing pumps), capped at 75% CCC share per pump;
  • Dedicated E15 or E85 pumps (new pumps or retrofit of existing pumps), capped at 75% CCC share per pump; and
  • New storage tanks and related equipment associated with new facilities or additional capacity (replacement is not included), capped at 25% CCC share per tank.

Applications must be submitted using www.grants.gov by July 15, 2015. To locate, search by funding opportunity number "USDA-FSA-2015-22."

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