Middle America Could Lead the Way for Independence From Foreign Oil

A Petroleum Alternative, but U.S. Says It’s Illegal: Discusses how biofuels are technicallly illegal. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has rules and requirements about what vehicles can burn which fuels, and which fuels are legal. Straight Vegetable Oil is not legal by those requirements.

The technical reasons are that a thicker fuel sprays differently in an engine, burns differently, and probably produces more soot. Nonstandard fuels can also damage engines, such as leaving deposits that harm the piston rings.

Middle America Could Lead the Way for Independence From Foreign Oil: A long plea for more investment in biofuels ... Why do we insist on depending on unstable parts of the world to supply the fuel to power our vehicles, and other things? Using American ingenuity and skill there is absolutely no reason why we can't manufacture and use our own fuels with resourses we have readily available in our country. It would require modifications to our vehicles to run purely alternative mixtures, but it is entirely possible.

Biodiesel Is Big In Austin: Says that the national biodiesel board has discovered that Austin Texas is the number one city in the nation for Biodiesel retail availability. That means its easier to find the cleaner-burning renewable fuel in the Capital City than anywhere else in the U.S. Yup, in Texas, the home of the U.S. oil industry.

Biodiesel paying off for Metro: Discusses how the Cincinnati Metro system is avoiding financial problems due to high oil prices. Instead of using fossil fuel for their city busses, they are using biodiesel. "So we have Ohio soybeans, made into fuel in Ohio, powering Cincinnati buses," Sallie Hilvers, Metro's chief communications officer said. "It works great for everyone."

City fleet moving toward biodiesel: Discusses a move in Portsmouth NH for their city vehicles to move to biodiesel. They're entering a test period and if it works out they'll embrace it more fully.