Legislative auditors praise bio‑incentive payments but find problems in biofuels infrastructure grants

The House Agriculture Finance and Policy Committee on Tuesday heard a performance audit from the Office of the Legislative Auditor of two Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) programs: the bio‑incentive payments program and the biofuels infrastructure grant program.

The Office of the Legislative Auditor found that the bio‑incentive payment program — which issues incentives to in‑state producers for commercial‑scale production of renewable energy and renewable chemicals — was operating in compliance with applicable requirements. "We completed our audit work on this program and we didn't find anything out of compliance for the department," said Valentina Stone, a manager on the audit project.

But auditors identified two areas of concern in the biofuels infrastructure grant program, which made competitive awards to retail fueling stations to enable them to dispense fuel containing at least 15% ethanol. Stone said auditors found that the…