Hi Everyone,

Az BioDiesel is still alive and producing for now without the $1 a gallon federal biodiesel tax credit.

It will hopefully be passed by Feb/March and be retroactive to Jan 1st but there are no guarantees.

For now, we (AZ BioDiesel) can afford to “weather the storm” and wait until the end of January to see if the tax credit will come back anytime soon.

Most plants around the country unfortunately, have closed or severely reduced production as they can’t weather a long wait to get the tax credit dollars.

The word is that if congress doesn’t get around to it before Feb, most of the industry will close and many may not be able to reopen. 29,000+ jobs will be lost very soon. Congress came back Jan 20th from their holiday break. Health care was still taking priority to anything else when they started.

Our industry is the victim of congress’ focus on health care and not having time to pass the biodiesel tax credit extension which helps biodiesel to be competitively priced to the already subsidized petroleum fuels.

Several senators (Dem & Rep) have sent letters to President Obama to get the extension passed quickly but, no answer yet.

Some are saying that Big Oil is behind this. The EPA was going to pass (this Feb) it’s new alt fuel standards which, for the first time, would include a national minimum requirement for 1 billion gallons of biodiesel to get the industry on its feet and growing. The EPA now is saying they may just give the 1 billion gallons to the ethanol industry to add to the minimum requirement they already have since they don’t believe the biodiesel industry can now live up to the new requirement.

Another win for Big Oil and their support of ethanol! The alternative fuel (ethanol) that isn’t a threat to the future of replacing petroleum oil.

It really concerns me that President Obama had the nerve recently to tout the $2.3 billion he gave out to create new forms of energy and add 17,000 jobs while he knows that the biodiesel industry is about to lose 29,000+ jobs and already can produce new energy but no one in congress or the white house seems to care. You’ll notice very little press about the loss of the biodiesel tax credit and it’s potential to bankrupt this industry even if they get around to passing an extension later in the year.

Please help save the biodiesel industry by going to this link and sending emails to our congressmen:

Your Help Is Needed to Reinstate the Biodiesel Tax Incentive
http://www.biodiesel.org/news/taxcredit/default.shtm

With your help, this industry can survive!!!

Thanks,
Dan Rees, AZ BioDiesel

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FUEL is an insightful portrait of America’s addiction to oil and an uplifting testament to the immediacy of new energy solutions. Director, Josh Tickell, a young activist, shuttles us on a whirlwind journey to track the rising domination of the petrochemical industry — from Rockefeller’s strategy to halt Ford’s first ethanol cars to Vice President Cheney’s petrochemical company sponsored energy legislation — and reveals a gamut of available solutions to “repower America” — from vertical farms that occupy skyscrapers to algae facilities that turn wastewater into fuel. Tickell and a surprising array of environmentalists, policy makers, and entertainment notables take us through America’s complicated, often ignominious energy past and illuminate a hopeful, achievable future, where decentralized, sustainable living is not only possible, it’s imperative.

I saw Fuel last night and thought it was a good thought provoking film. It is an interesting look at oil and how we use it to power our world, it’s pros and cons, and what might be the future of clean renewable fuels. Although I thought it was a tad long, I’d highly recommend seeing it. Eric Johnson of Desert Biofuels has a good write up on what he thought of the film on their blog. If you are interested in sustainable biofuels check out Desert Biofuels website to learn more.

Run down to the nearest theater showing this film and check it out! If you are in Arizona the film has just been extended to show until Thursday April 30th at Harkins Camelview.

Related posts:

1. Your Help Is Needed to Reinstate the Biodiesel Tax Incentive
2. Save Taxpayer Money And Help Create Locally Made Fuel By Recycling Your Turkey Grease This Year.

Top Gear’s review is a bit mixed, but overall they seemed impressed. Pretty good considering they usually bash “eco” cars.

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There’s been a lot of debate about biofuels lately, so before you swith you might want to learn more about it and decide for youself if E85 is better than gasoline.

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Here’s a quote from AZ Biodiesel’s owner Dan Rees from local diesel forum sparkfree.com.

You told us…………”appointments are lame”

So………….no more appointments!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is the map to our Gilbert location for you to get fuel:
http://azbiodiesel.com/contact.htm

And just to celebrate……..biodiesel now $2.50 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah!!!!!!!!! lower methanol prices allowed us to lower our price again!!!

Thanks everyone!
Dan

Related posts:

1. Save Taxpayer Money And Help Create Locally Made Fuel By Recycling Your Turkey Grease This Year.

If don’t know what the Volt is all about it is and all electric car that should be able to go 40 miles on a 8 hour charge and then is backed up by a gasoline engine to produce electricity to extend the car’s range to hundreds of miles.

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On a similar note, Western States Petroleum switched from virgin biodiesel made in Iowa to local recycled biodiesel made from waste vegetable oil. The biodiesel the sell is made by another local company called Amereco. They are currently selling their biodiesel for $3.49 a gallon which is also subject to change. Give them a call to find out the latest price.

Two years ago it was almost unimaginable that we’d have a few sources of completely local fuel made from waste sources. Glad to see these companies pull it off! We look forward to more places to fill up to come! Hopefully we’ll see some of this fuel at retail fuel stations sometime in the future.

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1. Save Taxpayer Money And Help Create Locally Made Fuel By Recycling Your Turkey Grease This Year.

While visiting the Green Summit this weekend I came across this plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) on display from  Arizona Public Service. Dueco and the Odyne Corporation partnered up and developed this PHEV which they call the Terex Hi-Ranger Telescopic Material Handling Aerial Device to minimize fuel use and emissions. This vehicle uses less fuel on the road with the assistance of a electric propulsion system and while working on-site the engine does not run. All of the boom hydraulic functions and climate control systems can work a full 8 hours without the assistance of the diesel engine. This significantly reduces fuel consumption, noise, and emissions from these vehicles that would usually spend a significant amount of the day idling. The manufacturer claims that fuel costs are cut in half compared to non-hybrid models, and a similar hybrid system from International Truck and Eaton have shown a 40% – 60% drop in fuel consumption in real world tests. The plug-in cabability saves even more fuel over other hybrid systems because it can offset fuel use with inexpensive grid power. Obviously this equals a significant drop in fuel consumption and costs.

Here are some specs of this bucket utility truck:

• Diesel Engine, 255 HP, 660lb Torque
• Aerial lift, 0 emissions on 8 hour operating time
• Battery Capacity = 35 KWh
• Plug-in recharge time = 8 hours
• On Board Power Charger = 5kW, 240 VAC
• Diesel Powered Recharge Capability
• Motor size 50 kW, Regen & Traction assist
• Electric air conditioning 20,000 Btu
• Power Generation = 30 kW continuous, 75 kW peak
• Payload = 7,500 lbs

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This blog post from Eric Johnson over at Desert Biofuels Initiative sums up what is going on with links to even more information.

According to the Energy Information Administration:

Based on projections of weak economic growth and record high crude oil and product prices, consumption is projected to decline by 190,000 bbl/d in 2008 [...] After accounting for projected increases in ethanol use, U.S. petroleum consumption is projected to fall by 330,000 bbl/d.

So if demand is falling, why are prices rising dramatically?

World oil consumption is projected to grow by 1.2 million bbl/d in 2008. Almost all of the growth in 2008 is expected to come from the non-Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, led by China, Middle East oil producing countries, and Russia, as well as Brazil and India [...]

more than offsetting any decline in demand in the US.

Bummer for us. Of course, it’s also great for us. Fuel prices are starting to more directly affect individual driving decisions, consumer vehicle preferences, and therefore auto manufacturer’s vehicle production. Business Week reports:

Ford Motor (F) is cutting its production of its one-time cash cows, pickups and SUVs, to instead increase production of smaller and more fuel-efficient cars.

And the New York Times reports:

With technical and environmental hurdles overcome — and facing tougher mileage standards that call for a 35 m.p.g. average by 2020 — automakers are rushing in with clean-diesel cars.

Nice.

[Desert Biofuels Initiative]

While it is great we’re going to be seeing new clean diesels on the market soon with higher MPGs than most gasoline cars are they going to be a success? As of this writing Diesel is around a dollar more per gallon than regular unleaded and its price is rising faster than gasoline. Gasoline and diesel are made from the same raw ingredient. So why is this happening? Here’s a good article explaining why from the New York Times.

“U.S. overall petroleum demand, including demand for gasoline, has flattened,” he said. “However, in the U.S., demand for diesel has remained strong.”

He added: “This follows a long-term trend here and around the world. Over the past five years, U.S. demand for highway diesel has been rising at triple the rate of gasoline.”

Part of the American demand for transportation fuel is met by refineries in Europe, a link that usually helps keep prices down. But demand for diesel is rising in Europe as passenger car ownership and use there grow; many of those newly purchased vehicles are diesel-powered, a choice that had been encouraged by tax policy there.

As a result, production at European refineries is geared toward processing crude oil to meet the demand for diesel. That produces surplus gasoline, which the refineries export to the East Coast of the United States, experts said. That does nothing for diesel supply here.

A related problem is that while American demand for gasoline and demand for diesel are fluctuating separately, the supply is linked.

Each 42-gallon barrel of crude oil yields about 19 gallons of gasoline, according to the Energy Department, and about 10 gallons of diesel fuel and heating oil combined. (The two are chemically similar.) Refineries can crack the big hydrocarbon molecules found in the heavier part of the crude oil feedstock into diesel, gasoline or other products, and thus have some flexibility, but there are limits to how much the ratios can be adjusted.

Read the full article at [nytimes.com]

Maybe it is time to start home-brewing biodiesel like I suggested in a earlier article on this site, but be sure you have a secure source of free or cheap used oil. It seems that demand for this waste product is on the rise and some home-brewers are stooping low and are stealing it. Check out this article over at msnbc.com about biodiesel pirates stealing used cooking oil.

SAN FRANCISCO – A few years ago, drums of used french fry grease were only of interest to a small network of underground biofuel brewers, who would use the slimy oil to power their souped-up antique Mercedes.

Now, restaurants from Berkeley, Calif., to Sedgwick, Kan., are reporting thefts of old cooking oil worth thousands of dollars by rustlers who are refining it into barrels of biofuel in backyard stills.

“It’s like a war zone going on right now over grease,” said David Levenson, who owns a grease hauling business in San Francisco’s Mission District. “We’re seeing more and more people stealing grease because it lets them stay away from the pump, but it’s hurting our bottom line.”

Full article at [msnbc.com]

Do you think this might end up being good for us? Is it going to drive Americans to conserve and innovate to find a solution? I think it might, and can’t wait to see where we go from here. What do you think? Leave a comment and let us know.

Related posts:

1. Save Taxpayer Money And Help Create Locally Made Fuel By Recycling Your Turkey Grease This Year.