NEWS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Paul Winters
202-737-8801
pwinters@biodiesel.org
WASHINGTON, DC - The National Biodiesel Board
(NBB) today welcomed Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue's announcement
of $100 million funding for Higher Blends Infrastructure Incentive Program
(HBIIP) grants, approximately $14 million of which will go to support biodiesel
blending. NBB also applauded Perdue's announcement of USDA's commitment to fuel
its fleet vehicles with higher blends of biodiesel and renewable diesel.
Kurt
Kovarik, NBB's VP of Federal Affairs, said, "NBB's members appreciate
Secretary Perdue's strong support for soybean growers and biodiesel producers
and USDA's leadership in driving demand for higher blends of biodiesel and
renewable diesel. The grant program that USDA is announcing will expand
consumers' access to cleaner, better transportation and heating fuels, such as
biodiesel and renewable diesel. USDA's fleet program can add significant market
pull for those biofuels simply by utilizing available data on where to fill
up."
USDA
owns 3,700 diesel fuel vehicles; but currently, its biofuel purchases are less
than 4% of its annual fuel use. The agency anticipates increasing its purchase
of biodiesel and renewable diesel blends by up to 3 million gallons.
Made
from an increasingly diverse mix of resources such as recycled cooking oil,
soybean oil and animal fats, biodiesel is a renewable, clean-burning diesel
replacement that can be used in existing diesel engines without modification.
It is the nation's first domestically produced, commercially available advanced
biofuel. NBB is the U.S. trade association representing the entire biodiesel
and renewable diesel value chain, including producers, feedstock suppliers, and
fuel distributors.
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For more about biodiesel, visit www.biodiesel.org.