USDA awards flex fuel grant in Geneseo
Judith Canales, the United States Department of Agriculture’s Rural Business Service Administrator, visited Geneseo on Sept. 15 to highlight one of the agency’s first funded flexible fuel pump projects in Illinois.
A new blender flexible fuel pump will be installed at Hometown Express on Route 6 in Geneseo.
The pump will allow customers with flex fuel cars to choose a blend of gasoline and either 30 or 85 percent ethanol.
The grant program can be used to cover 25 percent of the cost to purchase and install blender pumps.
Hometown Express already sells E85 fuel, said owner Steve Thompson. The new pump will allow the company to sell E30 fuel, as well as other flex fuels.
Thompson will install the new pumps both at his Geneseo station and at the Hometown Express in Galva.
During her visit to Geneseo, Canales credited Thompson with the “foresight to think of diversification in business.”
Canales said the USDA’s goal is to have 10,000 blender fuel pumps installed in the United States within the next five years.
“Step-by-step, we’re working toward the goal of helping provide American consumers with choice,” she said.
Purchasing flexible fuels “is an investment in a domestically produced product” said Canales, noting in Henry County there are ethanol plants in Annawan and Galva.
“Flex fuels also offer security for our country because they allow us to diversify our energy supply,” she said.
“While the production of biofuels has been successfully addressed in Illinois, the issue now is how to make biofuels more readily available to consumers,” said Rural Development state director Colleen Callahan.
“The technology is available to make additional blends of gasoline and ethanol. Providing grants for flexible fuel pumps was the next step in making more renewable fuel options available to consumers.”
Ethanol also is supported by the American Lung Association of Illinois.
“As part of our environmental program, we focus on outdoor air quality,” said Matt Marcum of the American Lung Association in Illinois. “We support greener-burning fuels.”
Hometown Express opened in Geneseo in 2005. The company began selling E85 fuel shortly after opening.
Thompson and his wife, Lisa, own a flex fuel vehicle.
“We bought it specifically to put our money where our mouth was,” said Thompson.
“Vehicles today are very smart,” said Thompson. “We’ve had no issues with our flex fuel vehicle. We’re our own case study.”
Thompson plans to install the new blender fuel pumps at his Geneseo and Galva stores in the next few months.
