[SustainableTompkins] the anti-gas station

Wed May 2 12:15:56 PDT 2007

Is Biodiesel available any place in the Finger Lakes?

GayNicholson at aol.com wrote:

>Please support Ithaca Biodiesel's efforts to bring this infrastructure to  
>our community:
> 
> 
> 
> 
>from the April 30, 2007 edition -  
>http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0430/p02s02-ussc.html
>Now in the Bay Area: the anti-gas station
>The smell of french fries wafts from the local 'gas' station. But  it's not 
>the snacks sold inside, it's the fuel.
>By Ben Arnoldy  | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
> 
> 
>With gas over $3.50 a gallon here in California, many station owners must be  
>relieved to have pumps with credit card readers. Better to cut out all  
>interaction with the sullen customers.  
>But Jennifer Radtke has just one ancient pump, prices a few pennies above her 
> competition, and lines that occasionally stretch over an hour long in this 
>quiet  corner of Berkeley. Yet customers clearly love the place, doubling the 
>business  each year and making possible a major expansion this summer.  
>How? She offers biodiesel, an alternative fuel that soothes so many  
>environmental and political bugaboos it may some day edge out lattes as the Left  
>Coast's favorite liquid.  
>"Everything about [biodiesel] is really incredible. It's nontoxic,  
>nonflammable, it's made from vegetable oil," enthuses Ms. Radtke, who jointly  owns and 
>runs BioFuel Oasis with five other women. For her, biodiesel is about a  
>feeling of independence more than politics. Oh, and it "smells great."  
>The fumes around BioFuel Oasis evoke French fries or donuts – foods that may  
>be for sale at some gas stations, but somehow wouldn't fit here among the  
>organic tangerine juice and the local artwork that proclaims, "Trees are wiser  
>than you think."  
>As much as BioFuel Oasis fosters an alternative, anti-gas station community,  
>their product is rapidly joining the mainstream. It's the fastest growing  
>alternative fuel in the nation, with production tripling last year, according to 
> the National Biodiesel Board. Their website, biodiesel.org, lists roughly 
>1,000  retailers, most of them in middle America.  
>The fuel can be put safely into many diesel vehicles without modifications,  
>though cold weather or older parts may require the use of biodiesel that's  
>blended with petroleum diesel.  
>For Oasis customers, one of the biggest selling points is that the fuel comes 
> from a potato chip factory in southern California, not the Middle East.  
>"Pretty much every time I went to buy gas, I thought about what was going on  
>in Iraq, and I was feeling awful," says Aimee Wells, as she fuels up her VW  
>Gulf, a diesel car she bought last year so she could switch to veggie power. A 
> bumper sticker on it reads, "Biodiesel: no war required."  
>Ms. Wells also fills up an extra 15 gallons inside jugs in her trunk. She's  
>driving down to Los Angeles and wants to have enough for the round trip. If 
>she  happened to run out, she could always fill up with conventional diesel: 
>There is  no danger in mixing.  
>Other customers extol biodiesel's environmental virtues. Andy Brucker of El  
>Cerrito drives an F-250 truck for his construction work. He says he's paying 
>the  $3.70 a gallon mainly to help reduce global warming gasses.  
>Biodiesel emits 78 percent less CO2 than petroleum diesel, among other  
>substantial drops in carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and particulates, according  to 
>a report from the US Department of Energy. However, other research suggests  
>that greenhouse-gas cuts could be dramatically reversed if demand for 
>vegetable  oil changed land use. So far, corn and soy are grown for animal and human 
>food,  with an abundance of oil as a byproduct.  
>"It wouldn't be economical to grow either soy or corn if it was only going to 
> be used for fuel," says Michael Briggs, a professor with the University of 
>New  Hampshire's Biodiesel Group. "There's this notion that fuel crops are 
>going to  displace food crops, which isn't going to happen."  
>The visibility of "french fry fuel" is on the rise here. San Francisco last  
>week opened its first commercial biodiesel station, and the mayor says the  
>city's fleet of diesel vehicles will switch to biodiesel by year's end.  
>This summer, BioFuel Oasis will move to a new Berkeley location with two  
>pumps with two nozzles each. 
>"We're taking a historic gas station and bringing it into the 21st century,"  
>says Radtke. The new station will have solar panels, grow plants on trellises 
> around the pumps, and sell urban farming equipment. "We're transforming a  
>fueling station and making it really cool and sustainable and environmental."  
>Part of the six businesswomen's mission will be – ironically – to get  
>customers to use less of their product. They post information about how to  
>maximize fuel efficiency and carry material about biking.  
>One enthusiastic customer has taken biofuels a step further. Philippe Monin  
>shelled out $1,500 to convert his car to take straight vegetable oil, or SVO. 
>He  swings around once a week to local restaurants and gets their used frying 
>oil  for free. If it's from a Japanese restaurant, he notes, the car exhaust 
>can  smell like tempura.  
>He recalls making the switch after hearing about record profits by the oil  
>industry. 
>"I said, 'No more.' I can't give them more money," says Mr. Monin. Now he  
>doesn't pay a dime to fuel his vehicle and laughs as he drives past gas  
>stations. "I see the price going up almost every day, and I just buzz by. I wave  and 
>say, 'Bye!' " 
>
>_Full HTML  version of this story which may include photos, graphics, and 
>related  links_ (http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0430/p02s02-ussc.html) 
>
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------
>Gay  Nicholson, Ph.D. 
>
>607-533-7312 (home office)
>607-279-6618  (cell)
>
>1 Maple Avenue
>Lansing, NY  14882
>gaynicholson at aol.com
>
>Sustainable Tompkins 
>Program  Coordinator 
>w_ww.sustainabletompkins.org_ (http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/) 
>
>Southern Tier Energy$mart Communities
>Regional  Coordinator
>Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County
>615 Willow  Ave., Ithaca, NY 14850
>agn1 at cornell.edu
>
>
>
>
>************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.
>_______________________________________________
>RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for:
>SustainableTompkins at lists.mutualaid.org
>http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins
>free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
>  
>