The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on January 11, 2024, that it is awarding $19 million in grants to U.S. business owners to increase the availability of domestic biofuels in 22 states and provide “cleaner, more affordable fuel options at gas station pumps as part of President Biden’s Bidenomics agenda to lower costs and invest in America.” USDA is making the awards through the Higher Blends Infrastructure Incentive Program (HBIIP), made possible with funding from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. Through this most recent tranche of awards, business owners are receiving $19 million to expand access to domestic biofuels in 22 states — Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wisconsin. USDA provides the following examples:

• Casey’s will use a $5 million grant to install ethanol blend fuel dispensers at 111 fueling stations in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, and South Dakota. Using these investments, the company aims to increase the amount of biofuels it supplies by 50 million gallons a year;
• Piasa Enterprises Inc. in Illinois will use a $200,000 grant to install two 30,000-gallon biodiesel storage tanks and associated piping at their Hartford fuel distribution center. The company projects an increase in the amount of biodiesel sold by two million gallons per year; and
• In Maryland, AC&T Inc. will install two ethanol fuel dispensers and one ethanol storage tank. Through this project, AC&T owners aim to expand the amount of ethanol they supply by over 106,000 gallons a year.

According to USDA, since the start of the Biden-Harris Administration, it “has invested more than $96 million nationwide to increase access to biofuels at fueling stations” and “$11.6 million of this has been invested in Iowa.”