A little over $3.3 million is available through the Access Ethanol Nebraska grant program administered by the Nebraska Energy Office for installation of ethanol blender pumps under US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Biofuels Infrastructure Program (BIP). These blender pumps will give Nebraska motorists and out-of-state travelers increased access to E-15, E-85 and other high ethanol blends.
Access Ethanol Nebraska is a grant program administrated by the Nebraska Corn Board, Nebraska Ethanol Board and Nebraska Department of Agriculture, with the Energy Office as the lead agency. Nebraska’s federal award of approximately $2.3 million for the AEN program came from the USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation’s Biofuel Infrastructure Program. USDA rules require that the USDA funds be matched dollar for dollar with funds from state, private industry or foundations. Matching funds will come from the Nebraska Corn Board through the state corn checkoff funds paid by Nebraska corn farmers and from the Nebraska Environmental Trust approved funding of $500,000 for each of the next two years. Matching funds will also come from contributions made by individual ethanol plants and “Prime the Pump;” a non-profit organized and funded by the ethanol industry to improve ethanol infrastructure.
“Including the USDA grant funds and matching funds, a total amount of approximately $6.0 million was made available to reimburse Nebraska fuel retailers for ethanol infrastructure improvements and provide support for marketing and promotion of the new ethanol biofuels at that location,” said Nebraska Energy Office Director David Bracht. “The first round recipients announced in May will receive a total of $2.7 million for installation of equipment, improvement of infrastructure, and education of motorists on the availability and benefits of ethanol.”
Interested parties can visit http://www.neo.ne.gov/ to review grant requirements. Applications should be completed and submitted by June 30, 2016 to be considered in the next round of applications reviewed.
“Applications received by the June 30 deadline will receive priority consideration so they can quickly get approved and retailers can start their projects, “added Bracht. “We will accept applications after that deadline for any remaining funds, but we expect them to be claimed quickly.”