USDA Rural Development Awards Funds for Agriculture, Renewable Fuels

Our newsroom runs on more than coffee and craft beer — it runs on you. Support Decorah News' local reporting today. Iowa State University, alongside cooperatives and businesses throughout Iowa, have received federal funding to support agriculture and manufacturing, economic development and renewable fuel sales.U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development will provide a total of $11.5 million in grants and loans to 13 projects across the state, according to a news release. Mike Sexton, Iowa state director for the rural development agency, said in the release recipients will use the funding to "advance economic development, promote value-added agricultural enterprises, support manufacturing and expand the sale of renewable fuel in Iowa." ISU's agriculture marketing resource center will use its $1.4 million grant to provide online support to "independent producers and processors" working to build "value-added agricultural enterprises." Six loans totaling more than $5.9 million from the Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant program are being provided to the Corn Belt, Central Iowa and Heartland power cooperatives, the Southern Iowa and North West Rural electric cooperatives and Osage Municipal Utilities, the release stated. Each of these loans will become pass-through loans to manufacturing, fabrication and processing facilities to build new facilities and purchase equipment, with each project set to create new jobs. In order to expand ethanol and biodiesel sales through infrastructure development, the USDA Rural Development's Higher Blends Infrastructure and Incentive Program also awarded six grants totaling more than $4.1 million to Iowa businesses. The largest grant in this group went to Molo Petroleum LLC, the release stated, which was awarded nearly $2 million to install 30 E15 dispensers, six B20 dispensers, four ethanol storage tanks and four biodiesel storage tanks at seven fueling stations spread across Scott, Linn and Dubuque counties in Iowa and Rock Island County in Illinois. E15 is a 15% ethanol blend with gasoline; B20 is a 20% mix of biodiesel fuel with petroleum diesel. Other companies will use the grant funding to install different dispensers and storage tanks at fueling stations in Delaware, Dubuque, Keokuk, Jackson, Butler and Marshall counties. According to the release, the expansions will increase the amount of biofuels sold by more than 6.2 million gallons per year, when projections from each company are combined. "Iowa is a manufacturing powerhouse, and USDA is an integral partner in supporting business access to capital and industrial services," Sexton said in the release. "President Donald J. Trump believes in rural America, and by expanding financing options through local co-ops and delivering entrepreneurial opportunities, USDA is moving that (vision) forward by helping Iowans prosper." Fresh stories, delivered! Sign up for the free DecorahNews.com newsletter and stay informed, inspired, and ahead of the curve.