[Sustain] The Darling Biofuel Project - Must Be Stopped

[Eric Brooks]

Hi all,

The Port has approved, and the San Francisco Supervisors will soon vote 
on, a biofuels project which is bad news with a capital B. It will 
promote the worst forms of big ag biofuels projects, including the 
-most- environmentally damaging agriculture, factory farm animal 
production. We must immediately move to stop this thing in its tracks 
before it gets any farther.

Here's an article about the project so that you can see why. (The 
projected output of biofuels noted in the article could not possibly be 
produced without huge amounts of factory and animal agriculture.)

http://sfenvironment.org/our_sfenvironment/news.html?topic=details&ni=411


    Locally Made Biodiesel on the Way--SF Chronicle

/(September 9, 2008)/

David R. Baker,

A company that processes food scraps, animal parts and used restaurant 
grease in San Francisco now wants to turn that waste into fuel.

Darling International has reached a tentative agreement with the Port of 
San Francisco to build a biodiesel plant on the city's southeastern 
waterfront. The Port Commission is scheduled to vote on the agreement 
today.

For 38 years, Darling has run a rendering plant on Pier 92, at Amador 
Street, that creates tallow by processing byproducts from dairies, 
meatpacking facilities, butcher shops and restaurants. Darling's plant 
ships so much finished tallow - 21,731 liquid tons in 2007 - that the 
company has become the port's largest exporter.

Tallow can be used to make biodiesel, a fuel that can be blended into 
regular, petroleum-based diesel or used on its own in vehicles with 
minor modifications. So Darling wants part of the pier to house a 
biodiesel plant capable of churning out 7.5 million to 10 million 
gallons each year. The project would cost roughly $7 million to $10 million.

"This facility will serve as a model for cities throughout the world who 
aim to reduce their carbon footprint and transform their grease waste 
into useable, sustainable energy," said Mayor Gavin Newsom.

The city government uses a blend of 20 percent biodiesel in all 1,500 of 
its diesel vehicles. The proposed agreement with the port, however, does 
not obligate the city to buy biodiesel from Darling.

Biodiesel has grown in popularity during this decade's historic run-up 
in oil prices, which pushed the price of regular diesel above $5 per 
gallon this summer in California. Biodiesel can be made from multiple 
sources, such as soy oil or recycled restaurant grease.

Under the proposal, Darling and the port also will collaborate on 
creating a marine fueling station at the pier, for boats that use 
biodiesel. Darling is based in Irving, Texas.

-- 
"I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." – Che Guevara

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