The Indiana Office of Energy Development (OED) and the Indiana Corn Marketing Council (ICMC) today announced that publicly-accessible fuel retail stations in Indiana can begin applying for a share of $280,000 through the third round of applications for the Hoosier Homegrown Fuels (HHF) Blender Pump Program. The first and second rounds provided more than $1,057,000 in grant funding.
The grant program is a partnership between OED, ICMC, the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, Greater Indiana Clean Cities and South Shore Clean Cities. OED received $895,000 from the US Department of Agriculture’s Farm Services Agency to put toward the HHF program, and ICMC will contribute $443,400 as well.
The goal of this program is to expand the availability of higher ethanol blends in areas of Indiana where blends of E15 – E85 are limited or not available. E15 and E85 are abbreviations indicating the percentage of ethanol blended in the fuel. A minimum of two and a maximum of five dispensers, per pump location, are eligible for funds.
Applications for the HHF grant program can be mailed to both grants@oed.in.gov and kparrent@indianacorn.org beginning today, April 26, 2016, through May 13, 2016. Program guidelines are available at www.in.gov/oed/2736.htm.
OED and ICMC intend for winning recipients to track their ethanol volume sales and marketing efforts through 2017 and their ethanol sales through 2022. This data will help OED and ICMC measure the impact of the new ethanol fueling infrastructure.
Those selected to receive a 2016 HHF grant will be notified by letter and email in May 2016.