Ohio Corn & Wheat wants to ensure that fueling station owners are aware of an opportunity to receive assistance for installing higher blends of ethanol at your station. The federal government, through the USDA, is making the grants available under the Higher Blends Infrastructure Incentive Program (HBIIP). The program is intended to increase significantly the sale and use of higher blends of ethanol and biodiesel by expanding the infrastructure for renewable fuels derived from U.S. agricultural products.

Grants for up to 50 percent of total eligible project costs, but not more than $5 million, are available to vehicle fueling facilities, including, but not limited to, local fueling stations/locations, convenience stores, hypermarket fueling stations, fleet facilities, fuel terminal operations, midstream partners and/or distribution facilities.

USDA plans to make available approximately $86 million for implementation activities related to higher blends of fuel ethanol, and approximately $14 million for implementation activities related to higher blends of biodiesel.  Higher biofuel blends are fuels containing ethanol greater than 10 percent by volume and/or fuels containing biodiesel blends greater than five percent by volume.

For application information and other program details, visit the Higher Blends Infrastructure Incentive Program web page.