Blended Curriculum: The Nebraska Ethanol Board Offers Workshops

by Lisa Gibson (Ethanol Producer Magazine) The Nebraska Ethanol Board offers workshops to help retailers learn more about E15 and higher blends. Other states offer help with grant application processes, or are pushing for for mid-level blends. -- Considering updating his fuel dispensers, Dan O’Neill, president and CEO of Kwik Stop Convenience Stores, attended a Nebraska Ethanol Board E15 Retailer Workshop. Now, O’Neill will be adding blender pumps for E15, E30 and E85 at five Kwik Stop locations.

O’Neill is one of many attendees of the NEB’s workshops—one held in August and one in November—who had positive feedback, says Roger Berry, administrator with NEB. Each meeting has hosted about 25 to 30 attendees representing retailers of varying sizes, and many who didn’t have E15 capability before are now looking into it, Berry adds. The workshops are designed to cover the process of preparing to sell E15 blends and higher, from start to finish. “We’re getting together all of the steps for retailers to start installing higher blends,” Berry says, adding that the education focuses not just on E15. “We’re calling it E15 workshops, but we’re focusing on higher blends.”

He doesn’t have an official count of how many retailers have walked away from the sessions ready to move forward with E15, but says he has heard from several who are “getting the wheels in motion.”

In Class
NEB’s workshops are held in a classroom setting and broken down into a few sessions. First, a fire marshal speaks to the group, then a representative from weights and measures outlines labeling, then another speaker addresses equipment needs, a retailer details his or her own experience, and finally, financial resources are explored. Infrastructure is usually the biggest obstacle and the main topic attendees want to discuss, Berry says.

Other Resources
Cassidy Walter, director of communications for the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, says the state doesn’t have workshops, but IRFA does offer guidance on funding sources—such as the Iowa Renewable Fuels Infrastructure Program—for retailers looking to install pumps.

In South Dakota, the Ethanol Producers Association was instrumental in securing ongoing legislative appropriations for South Dakota’s ethanol infrastructure fund in 2018, says Dana Siefkes-Lewis, president of the SDEPA and chief administrative officer of Redfield Energy LLC in Redfield, South Dakota. Siefkes-Lewis says the fund is designed to award incentive grants to retailers for purchase and installation of blender pumps and tanks and associated piping, storage systems and equipment; for purchase of pumps and pump equipment to dispense gasoline containing up to 85 percent ethanol; and to encourage increased use of ethanol.

“SDEPA is currently focused on statewide policies to promote the use of higher biofuel blends that benefit consumers, retailers, farmers, municipal governments and taxpayers across South Dakota,” Siefkes-Lewis says.

Berry says Nebraska’s retailer workshops could be a roadmap for other states to use as they focus on helping new and more retailers offer E15. “I would encourage all states to do this,” he says. READ MORE