Having lived through the days of mile-long gas lines (where one fine Saturday morning in 1973, I ran out of gas ten yards from the coveted gas pump) I am a harsh critic of the SUV boom. The concept of accepting, even coveting, a vehicle that consumes a $3.00 gallon of noxious-emission-producing fuel every nine or ten miles goes against every fiber of my being. I can only speculate what kind of back-room wheeling and dealing has gone on between Detroit and the oil industry to market these vehicles to a generation of soccer moms as the only tanks on the road monstrous enough to keep their families safe in a crash. The nation’s freeways are overrun with vehicles capable of amazing feats of four-wheel drive capability, though 90% of them will never see snow deeper than three inches, much less a 17% grade up a boulder-strewn mountain trail. Mindless consumption-driven madness.
And then, a year ago, I had to purchase a diesel-guzzling one ton pick-up to tow my ten-thousand pound concession trailer. There was no help for it. Nothing else was equipped to do the job safely. So I gritted my teeth and averted my eyes as I clattered up to the pump, hating the fact that I was pumping money at the rate of ninety bucks a shot into the pockets of oil execs who already had more money than God.
Until I discovered biodiesel. I couldn’t believe there truly was a non-fossil-fuel that I could pump into my big-ass testosterone machine, drive away and thumb my nose at Big Oil. Where had it been all my life? Why hadn’t I heard about it before?
Last Sunday, The Oregonian ran a great article about biodiesel in, of all places, the "Opinion" section of the paper. I don’t quite get why singing the praises of this marvelous product has to be classified as editorial. I’m sure there’s some kind of pandering to ownership interests here, about which I truly do not want to know. Here’s the article: "Fill ‘er up—With Homegrown Fuel" by John Foyston.
"The great thing about biodiesel is it feels like you're sticking it to the man every time you fill up," says Portlander Sarah Horton, "no matter how you define 'the man.' "
Biodiesel is easily enough defined. Vegetable oil or animal fat -- used deep-fryer oil works great, as does lowly kitchen-trap grease -- is combined with alcohol and a lye-like catalyst to create biodiesel. This fuel is elegant in its simplicity, environmental friendliness and political punch.
Biodiesel can be used in diesel engines with little or no modification. It can be homebrewed in small batches, and the byproducts are water and glycerin, which has a robust industrial market.
Every gallon we make of this sustainable, clean-burning fuel helps wean the U.S. off foreign oil while supporting local economies.
Why, why, why don’t more people know about this? Oh…I know. Biodiesel sucks. It’s one of those "alternative energies" that takes x-number of gallons of oil in order to produce one gallon of it. Or is it?
A 2005 Cornell University study, however, maintains that producing ethanol and biodiesel from corn and other crops uses more fuel than it generates, which doesn't apply in Oregon, where the majority of biodiesel is made with waste vegetable oil.
Perhaps that's one reason Goran Jovanovic, a professor of chemical engineering at Oregon State University, calls the Cornell study "gibberish."
"It takes more energy to produce a gallon of gasoline than a gallon of biodiesel," Jovanovic says.
How insidiously those negative stories about sources of alternative energy are planted in our minds! By the energy industry, no doubt. You know, those same folks that brought you the "carbon dioxide is good" commercial. Or this little gem of a website: http://www.factsonfuel.org/ sponsored by "America’s Oil and Natural Gas industries." Have you seen their commercial yet? The one with the close-ups of all the serious, environmentally-concerned faces begging for information on alternative energy sources? Not the first place I would go with questions of that nature, I’m afraid…
Foyston’s article concludes:
…[I]t's hard to describe how compelling biodiesel is.
"It makes people into advocates, and that's a mild word. ...You get the bug and before you know it, you're putting biodiesel stickers on your car."
And so I have. Yet, I had a very disappointing experience this weekend when I traveled four hours down the Oregon coast to do an event over the holiday weekend. There is no such thing as bio-diesel along Highway 101. Apparently, concern for the environment currently engages only the citizens of Portland, Eugene, and Corvallis. The nether reaches of our traditionally green-minded state are as clueless as the rest of the country about this promising alternative fuel. The biodiesel gospel needs disciples. Read the article. Do the research. Then, join the rest of us who are taking so much pleasure in "sticking it to the man."
