Iowa Senate to vote on increased funds for E85, biodiesel pump conversion

In Iowa, the state Senate Agriculture Committee will vote on legislation that will assist with infrastructure for selling biodiesel and ethanol blends higher than E10, by expanding the $9 million Renewable Fuels Infrastructure Program, first created in 2006, and which will have $9 million to distribute in the next budget year.

State Senate leader Jack Kibbie told iowapolitics.com ” When I drive from Emmetsburg to the State Capitol, I pass by only one E85 pump. If given the option, Iowans would rather use the fuels we produce here in our state rather than import it from the Middle East.”

Kibbie recently proposed giving gas stations the right to remove labeling from E10 ethanol blended fuel, as a measure to stimulate ethanol usage. A similar move in Kansas has resulted in higher ethanol sales. Kibbie told the Des Moines Register that E10 ethanol is stalled at a 73 percent usage rate in Iowa, in part because of resistance to ethanol from out-of-state residents. The move was rejected after onsumers relayed concerns about knowing what was in the fuel they were buying.

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