State Sen. Andy Dinniman (D-19)
WEST CHESTER – State Senator Andy Dinniman encouraged local municipalities, school districts, businesses and nonprofit organizations to take advantage of Pennsylvania’s Alternative Fuels Incentive Grant (AFIG) program.
The program opened February 20 and an estimated $7 million in grants is now available to eligible applicants.
“This program offers grants to local governments, companies, schools and nonprofits that use alternative fuels in their vehicles,” Dinniman said. “It is important that we continue to work to make Pennsylvania a leader in the use of alternative fuels that are both domestically produced and environmentally friendly.”
The AFIG Program will assist school districts, municipal authorities, nonprofits, corporations, LLCs, and partnerships registered to do business in Pennsylvania in offsetting the costs of implementing transportation projects that utilize alternative fuels.
Eligible projects are as follows:
- Vehicle Retrofit or Purchase – To offset the incremental cost of purchasing alternative fuel vehicles or retrofitting existing vehicles to operate on alternative fuels. Grants are available to support 50 percent of incremental cost expenses relative to purchasing or retrofitting vehicles to operate on alternative fuels as a bi-fuel, dual-fuel, hybrid or dedicated vehicle.
- Alternative Fuel Refueling Infrastructure – To assist in the costs of purchasing and installing the necessary equipment for fleet or home-based refueling for bi-fuel, dual-fuel, hybrid or dedicated vehicles.
- Biofuel Use – To support a portion of the cost to purchase high content biofuels including e-85 and biodiesel blends of 5 percent biofuel content and higher.
- Innovative Technology – To support research, training, development, and demonstration of new applications or next-phase technology related to alternative fuels and alternative fuel vehicles.
New this year, and in response to feedback from prior applicants, the AFIG program will remain open to receive applications throughout 2016. Instead of one deadline for acceptance of applications for the year, AFIG now has multiple submission periods approximately four months in length, during which prospective applicants may submit applications for consideration. DEP will collect and review Applications received by 4 p.m. on Friday, April 29, 2016; 4 p.m. on Friday, August 26, 2016; and 4 p.m. on Friday, December 30, 2016.
DEP will accept applications at any time during the year and evaluate the applications received after each four-month submission period and determine awards. Applicants that do not receive an award will be able to be resubmitted immediately for consideration during the next submission period in accordance with the program rules.
In addition, applications must be submitted online through the eGrants system. Visit www.ahs.dep.pa.gov/eGrants/index.aspx (click on “Find a Grant.” scroll down to “AFIG” and click “Apply for this grant”). Hardcopy applications will not be accepted.
For more information on the AFIG program click here. For program guidelines click here.
To further assist potential applicants, DEP is hosting two webinars: March 7, 2016, from 1:00-2:00 p.m., and March 8, 2016, from 11:00 a.m. -12:00 p.m. to review key elements of this grant program.
- To register for the March 7 webinar, click here or copy and paste the following link into the browser: https://copa.webex.com/copa/onstage/g.php?MTID=eccfd55f094d096513ef50e6d015154d8
- To register for the March 8 webinar, click here or copy and paste the following link into the browser: https://copa.webex.com/copa/onstage/g.php?MTID=ed6b759a2a89ce9ada36d5d5b3395a70c
The AFIG is funded by annual gross receipts tax on utilities.
Finally, individual residents are not eligible to apply for the AFIG program. They should consider applying for DEP’s alternative fuel rebates program.
For more information, call Senator Dinniman’s office at 610-692-2112 or e-mail acirucci@pasenate.com.
