USDA hands out $97M in biofuel loans

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced $97 million in guaranteed loans yesterday for biofuel projects in Georgia, Illinois and North Carolina.

The loans are part of a government program providing financial assistance to agricultural producers and rural small businesses to install renewable energy projects or make energy efficiency improvements.

Getting cash from the program are Clean Burn Fuels in Hoke County, N.C., which will receive $35 million to construct a new ethanol plant expected to produce 60 million gallons per year, and Savannah, Ga.'s Appling County Pellets, approved for $19.5 million to produce up to 130,000 tonnes of wood pellets.

In Illinois, Freeport's Blackhawk Biofuels will have $27.5 million to build and operate a 30 million gallon per year biodiesel facility, and National Trail Biodiesel in Newton is getting $15 million for its biodiesel plant, also expected to be a 30 million gallon per year operation.

The country's largest biodiesel plant was opened last week by Seattle's Imperium Renewables. The 100 million gallon per year facility started operations in Grays Harbor, Wash. (see Imperium gets big with biodiesel).

Current U.S. law sets a requirement of 7.5 billion gallons of renewable fuel use in the country by 2012, but proposed legislation would boost that to 36 billion gallons per year by 2022.