USDA invests $5.8M to increase biofuels sales in Missouri

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USDA invests $5.8M to increase biofuels sales in Missouri

Missouri is getting more than $5.8 Million dollars to increase biofuels sales in the state.  It’s part of the $22 Million dollars in biofuels infrastructure projects the USDA is investing in across 27 states. The agency’s Rural Business-Cooperative Service Director Rebeckah Freeman Adcock describes what the Higher Blends Infrastructure Incentive Program is for,

“Everything from the higher octane ethanol blends to biodiesel infrastructure. And we are right now at about ¾ of that money being obligated out the door and working on the other fourth.”

Freeman Adcock was in Jefferson City today at the Missouri Soybean Association’s Soy Innovation Center for the announcement of six grantees in the state.

Missouri Ag Director Chris Chinn announced that the Missouri Agricultural and Small Business Development Authority was able to match 25% of the cash match required for the USDA program.

“We’re really excited because we had three companies who qualify. They were Home Services Oil Company, Scrivner Oil Company, and, Casey’s.”

Chinn says the tax credit sales are what made it possible.

“So, with 13-hundred ag product utilization tax credits sold the board was able to strategically reinvest in the biofuel industry with these three companies.”

MASBDA makes capital available to Missouri farmers, especially independent producers, agribusinesses and small businesses at competitive interest rates.

The matching federal grant program dollars are being spent in 27 states. Freeman Adcock calls it a cost incentive bonus for consumers, “Because, typically, those fuels are cheaper at the pump and this is a time when everyone’s in a cost saving mode. So, every dime you can save certainly will help the consumer. It helps the retailers and the refiners by creating a new opportunity for them and for bringing, hopefully, more consumers in at more competitive prices.”

She says the goal of the program is to stabilize the biofuels market by increasing ethanol demand by nearly 150 million gallons a year, “The President and Secretary have long committed to being 100% in on biofuels as an all-of-the-above fuel and energy strategy for the United States.”

So far, the federal grant funds have been distributed in 14 states including Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Wisconsin. Brownfield Ag News interviewed Freeman Adcock in Jefferson City, Missouri Wednesday at the Missouri Soy Innovation Center.

Interviews with Rebeckah Freeman Adcock & Chris Chinn:

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