WYRZ.org 98.9 WYRZ – The Voice of Hendricks County
INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Office of Energy Development (OED) and the Indiana Corn Marketing Council (ICMC) today announced over $268,000 will be shared among three grantees for the first round of the Hoosier Homegrown Fuels (HHF) Blender Pump Program.
The goal of this program is to expand the availability of higher ethanol blends in areas of Indiana where blends of E15 – E85 are limited or not available. E15 and E85 are abbreviations indicating the percentage of ethanol blended in the fuel. The three grantees are planning to deploy 19 blender pumps capable of dispensing these higher ethanol blends.
| Applicant | Counties | Number of Dispensers | Grant Amount |
| Thorntons | Clark, Floyd | 4 | $99,739.85 |
| Coop Fuels | Miami, Grant, Jay, Whitley, Adams, Lawrence, Wayne, Putnam, Clark, Dubois | 12 | $121,592.38 |
| Speedway | Lake County, Marion, Delaware | 3 | $47,619.00 |
“We are proud to work with our partners to support Hoosier consumers, farmers, and retailers by expanding access to homegrown biofuels,” said OED Director Tristan Vance. “We look forward to working closely with ICMC, ISDA, the Greater Indiana Clean Cities and South Shore Clean Cities Office to give Indiana drivers options at the pump based on fuel price, performance, or preference.”‖
“Indiana corn farmers appreciate the opportunity to work with OED, ISDA, USDA and our fuel retailers to provide consumers with easier access to Indiana’s homegrown, sustainable fuel,” said David Gottbrath, Indiana Corn Marketing Council president and farmer from Washington County. “We look forward to the opening of these flex fuel pumps across the state in the coming months.”
The grant program is also in partnership with the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, Greater Indiana Clean Cities and South Shore Clean Cities who assisted in scoring the applications and provided outreach support. ICMC saw an opportunity through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Biofuel Infrastructure Partnership to leverage state corn checkoff funds and partner with other organizations to expand ethanol’s availability to the roughly 450,000 Hoosiers throughout the state who drive Flex Fuel Vehicles. ICMC has been working with fuel retailers to help increase the number of flex fuel pumps across the state for five years, including offering grants for installation.
