USDA spending $3M to add ethanol fuel pumps in Michigan

In total, funding from the department and private partners like Florida’s DACS adds up to an investment of over $38 million.

USDA and state/private matching funds will finance an additional 5,000 ethanol/gasoline blender pumps in 21 states, U.S.ag secretary Tom Vilsack announced.

North Dakota has been awarded $1.2 million for 90 proposed pumps, South Dakota will receive $1.5 million for 74 pumps and Minnesota will receive $8 million for 620 proposed pumps, according to USDA.

The largest grants are going to Texas, $17 million for 763 pumps at 148 stations, and Florida, almost $16 million for 892 pumps at 130 stations. USDA anticipates 1,486 stations will install 4,880 pumps and 515 tanks as part of the infrastructure partnership.

Through the grants announced today, the USDA is encouraging infrastructure improvements that will allow stations to offer other ethanol blends, typically E15 fuel.

A typical gas pump delivers fuel with 10 percent ethanol, which limits the amount of renewable energy that consumers can purchase. “We look forward to managing this fund and the match contribution to achieve the best investments to expand ethanol fuel choice in the state”.

Kissimmee mayor Jim Swan, Tom Buis, CEO of Growth Energy, and Richard Childress Racing’s American Ethanol racecar are also on hand today. “The speed with which this program has been implemented clearly demonstrates that USDA and its state and private sector partners can indeed make good things happen”. The report, titled U.S. Ethanol: An Examination of Policy, Production, Use, Distribution, and Market Interactions, brings clarity to the complex interaction of ethanol production with agricultural markets and government policies.