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Ohio Biofuels Bill Clears First
Hurdle
As the Ohio General Assembly begins its
summer recess this week, the Ohio Biofuels Bill (HB 245)
sits in a good position. The bill will provide a grant
program for fuel retailers to install or convert a pump to
E85 or Biodiesel. It also provides these grants to
terminals to install Biodiesel blending equipment. On
Wednesday, June 15 the bill was passed by a unanimous vote
out of the House Transportation Committee and will head to
the House floor when session resumes sometime in September.
Rep. Steve Reinhard (R-Bucyrus) introduced the bill on May
18th and it moved quickly through committee.
Senator Larry Mumper (R-Marion) has
introduced a companion bill in the Senate. Hearings will
begin in September in a Senate committee yet to be
announced.
“The leadership if Rep. Reinhard and
Senator Mumper show they understand the benefits and savings
Ohio consumers are missing out on” said Keith Houts, OCGA
President. “There are 150,000 flexible fuel vehicles
(FFV’s) in Ohio with no place to fill up. And those
consumers could be buying E85 for 30 – 50 cents less per
gallon than gasoline.”
This is clearly a bill supported by
ethanol and Biodiesel supporters, but this is a consumer
issue. The number of FFV’s in the US is expected to double
in the next two years and without the financial assistance
provided by HB 245, the pumps still won’t be available to
consumers in Ohio. Biodiesel is in high demand but limited
by the number of terminals capable of handling it. E85
retail infrastructure and Biodiesel terminal infrastructure
both stand to benefit from passage of HB 245. When the
infrastructure is in place, Ohio consumers will benefit.
HB 245 also provided grants to cover
the incremental cost of government-related fleets such as
school systems to use Biodiesel, and requires Ohio’s state
fleet vehicles to use E85 and Biodiesel.
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