Biodiesel: Homegrown Prosperity featured in Billings Gazette
The Biodiesel: Homegrown Prosperity campaign was featured in the Billings Gazette. For an online look at the article, click here.
Petitioners pursue city biodiesel use
By TOM HOWARD
Of The Gazette Staff
A citizen group wants Billings to hop aboard the biodiesel bus.
A petition drive under way seeks a ballot initiative that would require the city to use biodiesel - traditional diesel fuel blended with vegetable oil - in buses and other diesel-powered vehicles.
Supporters of the biodiesel initiative must collect 9,425 valid signatures, representing 15 percent of the city's registered voters, for the measure to appear on the ballot.
If the initiative qualifies and voters approve it, the city would be required to blend 2 percent vegetable oil into its diesel fuel beginning June 1. The blend would increase to 20 percent vegetable oil beginning in 2009.
Duane Winslow, Yellowstone County election administrator, said supporters of the biodiesel initiative have until Aug. 17 to collect enough signatures to place the measure on the Nov. 7 general election ballot.
Ed Gulick, a member of the Yellowstone Valley Citizens Council, said the initiative is designed in part to help encourage a Montana biodiesel industry. The council is an affiliate of the Northern Plains Resource Council, a Billings-based coalition of farmers, ranchers and environmentalists.
"The costs of fuel are rising, and this is a way to take a proactive step toward diversifying our energy supply," Gulick said. "In addition to providing a local supply of renewable energy, biodiesel also burns cleaner. It emits less sulfur dioxide and particulate matter."
Gulick said biodiesel is gaining a foothold in the area. Missoula, Bozeman and Yellowstone National Park all operate buses powered by biodiesel, he said.
The Town Pump convenience store at 32nd Street West and King Avenue recently began offering biodiesel to retail customers. Last fall, a Missoula company purchased an oilseed crushing plant in Culbertson, with the goal of expanding the state's biodiesel industry.
Gulick said an 80-20 blend of petroleum and vegetable oil, commonly known as B-20, can power diesel engines with no modifications. In fact, Rudoph Diesel, the inventor of the diesel engine, originally designed his engine to run on vegetable oil, he said.
Gulick said Friday that organizers have collected about 500 signatures. If the petition drive falls short, supporters may try to get it on a future ballot, he said.
Transit Manager Ron Wenger said the city has just begun researching biodiesel.
Wenger said an energy and conservation commission that will soon be appointed by Mayor Ron Tussing will take a closer look at biodiesel. "We're still gathering information," he said.
Biodiesel can be derived from oilseed crops such as canola, camelina and safflower. Used cooking oil also can be utilized.
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