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@earthlink.net.