Iowa RFA

IRFA ANNOUNCES AVAILABILITY OF FOUR ADDITIONAL

$2,500 BIODIESEL PROMOTION GRANTS FOR IOWA SCHOOLS

The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association is proud to announce the reopening of the Biodiesel Backer Award Program and four additional $2,500 grants available to K-12 schools in Iowa.

School buses are the safest way to get children to and from school, and thanks to efforts by Iowa school districts like yours, school bus travel has been made even safer by reducing diesel fuel emissions through the use of ultra-low sulfur diesel, replacing older high emitting school buses with new vehicles meeting Environmental Protection Agency emission standards, and retrofitting older school bus models with catalysts to trap particulate matter.

While great strides have been made to ensure that the school bus remains the safest way for children to travel to and from school, there is one more thing that schools can do to further reduce diesel emissions: fueling their school buses with clean burning biodiesel made right here in Iowa, using Iowa’s natural resources. The use of biodiesel reduces carbon monoxide emissions by 12 percent, carbon dioxide by 15 percent, particulate matter by 18 percent and sulfates by 20 percent. Biodiesel is one more safety mechanism that can be used to protect children from lung cancer, lung inflammation and exacerbation of asthma and allergies that can all be caused by diesel fuel emissions.

The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association will be awarding four $2,500 competitive grants to schools in Iowa. In order to be eligible to receive the grants, schools merely have to use the enclosed Biodiesel Backer Toolkit to educate their communities about the benefits of biodiesel. The Biodiesel Backer Toolkit has everything you need to share the biodiesel story with your community and teach tomorrow’s leaders about biodiesel. Grants will be awarded based on a variety of criteria including:

Design of the communications program
The audience targeted by the communications program
The number of people within the target audience reached by the communications program
Additional communication pieces created for the program
Student involvement in the communication program
Inclusion of biodiesel into school program and curriculum
Use of biodiesel by the school’s bus fleet and/or other equipment

Iowa is the nation's leader in both ethanol and biodiesel production. Iowa’s renewable fuel plants serve as an economic stimulant, creating jobs and revenue as well as helping to decrease our dependence on foreign oil.

If your school district is interested in sharing the biodiesel story, please utilize the enclosed Biodiesel Backer Toolkit, and then complete the award application by May 28, 2010, to be eligible for one of the grants.

If you have any questions about this program, please feel free to contact the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association at 515-252-6249.

BIODIESEL BACKER TOOLKIT