Up and Running: Retailers Respond Positively to SD Blender Pump Incentive

Business News/Analysis, Deliver Dispense, grants, Infrastructure, Marketing/Markets and Sales, South Dakota

February 23, 2012

Print This Article Share it With Friends

by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine) The application window for South Dakota’s inaugural blender pump grant program may have just opened on Jan. 9, but it already appears that the incentive will be a success. More than half the fiscal year’s available funds had been applied for within a couple of weeks of the Ethanol Infrastructure Incentive Program’s launch, according to South Dakota’s Energy Policy Director Hunter Roberts, leaving little doubt that the entire $950,000 budget would be quickly distributed to future blender pump retail locations.

…South Dakota’s blender pump program is a five-year, $3.5 million grant program and was initiated by the state’s ethanol producers, who volunteered to redirect a portion of the state’s Ethanol Producer Payments Program to fund the initiative. Dana Siefkes-Lewis, president of the South Dakota Ethanol Producers Association, says the goal is to increase the availability of ethanol blends, thereby benefiting the state’s economy and the ethanol industry. A total of 15 ethanol plants are located in South Dakota, representing more than 1 billion gallons of annual production capacity, including top U.S. producer, Poet, which has five plants and a research facility in the state.

…Serie says the GOED should be commended for creating a user-friendly blender pump incentive program. The application form is a mere two pages and is very easy to complete, he says, compared with the USDA’s Renewable Energy for America Program application, which stretches to more than 100 pages. “That’s the key: keep it simple,” he says. “We think this is going to be a good model for other states to follow.” READ MORE

Comments are closed.

Advanced BioFuels USA