[Sustain] Fwd: Commercial Biodiesel Station Opens As City Takes Lead in Biodiesel Conversion

[Eric Brooks]

http://www.beyondchron.org/articles/Commercial_Biodiesel_Station_Opens_As_City_Takes_Lead_in_Biodiesel_Conversion_4447.html

Commercial Biodiesel Station Opens As City Takes Lead in Biodiesel
Conversion

by E. "Doc" Smith, 2007-04-25
At the opening of the City's first fleets-only biodiesel fueling station
yesterday, Mayor Gavin Newsom called on “every municipality in the
country to do what we have done” as he highlighted the City’s remarkable
progress in converting its own fleet of diesel vehicles to a biodiesel
fuel blend and in moving toward a Fall launch of the PUC’s program to
provide some of that fuel by recycling grease from restaurants. Newsom
also announced that all of the recycling trucks that operate in the City
are now running on a biodiesel blend.

Local fleets are now able to pump B20 grade biodiesel via a card lock
system at the Olympian station at 23rd and Third Streets in San
Francisco. Although private vehicles are not able to use this station,
biodiesel is available locally from the San Francisco BioFuels
Cooperative (SFBC), People’s Fuel, and Berkeley's Biofuel Oasis.

San Francisco, which has taken a leadership role in implementing local
solutions to the problems of global warming and sustainability, is ahead
of schedule in converting its diesel vehicles to a biodiesel blend, a
goal that Mayor Newsom announced a year ago. Currently 39% of the fleet
has been converted to B20 (20% biodiesel, 80% petrodiesel). Even at 20%,
biodiesel contributes significantly to reductions in pollution,
especially greenhouse gasses. The City plans to convert it's entire
fleet by year’s end and to move to higher blends of biodiesel as soon as
possible.


Mayor Newsom and Ben Jordan of People's Fuel, a worker-owned cooperative

Jared Blumenfeld, Director of the San Francisco Department of the
Environment, urged fleets and school buses to take advantage of this
opportunity to reduce the city's pollution, particularly in the Third
Street corridor where 1 in 6 children suffer from asthma caused by
diesel pollution.


E. "Doc" Smith is a musician and recording engineer who has worked with
the likes of Brian Eno, Madonna, Warren Zevon, Mickey Hart and Jimmy
Cliff. He is also the inventor of the musical instrument, the
Drummstick, a member of the SFBC, and drives a 2002 VW Beetle, which
runs exclusively on B99 biodiesel. He can be reached at
drummstick at earthlink.net.