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New Grants Support RFA’s Award-Winning Safety Education

October 19, 2020

RFA News, Safety

           

The Renewable Fuels Association has recently been awarded $75,000 in grants to support its safety education program through on-site seminars and Internet webinars. Both grants were received via the association’s work with TRANSCAER, a voluntary national outreach effort that focuses on assisting communities to prepare for and respond to a possible hazardous material transportation incident.

 

“Safety is a high priority for the renewable fuels industry, and we consider it an important part of our mission to help our ethanol plants and others understand the best practices for a safe environment,” said RFA Technical Services Manager Missy Ruff. “We’re committed to ensuring that ethanol producers, shippers, blenders, and emergency response personnel can all learn more about safe handling of ethanol and responding to incidents. We appreciate the strong assistance we’ve received from TRANSCAER and our other partners in this life-saving work.”

 

A $25,000 grant from the Federal Railroad Administration will support 10 ethanol safety seminars and four “train the trainer” webinars for first responders, and a $50,000 Community Safety Grant from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) will fund six Ethanol & Steel Drum Safety seminars in conjunction with the Industrial Steel Drum Institute.

 

The four “train the trainer” webinars will take place starting in December. Click here for details. Also, under a pre-existing PHMSA ALERT Grant that was extended through next August, RFA has scheduled 10 additional ethanol safety webinars. Click here for details. The other programs will be announced as they are scheduled.

 

For more information on RFA’s work in this area, visit the Ethanol Emergency Response website at www.ethanolresponse.com, where the training programs conducted in the seminars and webinars can be seen.

 

Ken Colombini