Posts Tagged ‘BioDiesel’

B5 Biodiesel Makes Big Move

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

This week some news articles have been flying around about B5 bio diesel. an article on Chron.com confirmed that that 15,000 barrels of B5 bio diesel have been piped from Georgia to Virginina and from Georgia to Mississippi.

This is the first reported piping of the diesel fuel blend. According to a 2007 law 1 billion gallons of B5 need to be injected into the nations fuel supply by 2012. Students in trucking schools and professional truck drivers should be prepared by the 2012 deadline.

This big announcement came from Kinder Morgan Energy Partners. A more complete article about this big step towards a change in diesel fuel use also ran in the New York Times Energy & Environment section on July 2nd, 2009.  The article written by Kate Galbraith discusses a small issue regarding the possibility of biodiesel contaminating jet fuel that runs through the pipe line. 

I think we know a about a work around for the issue of pipe contamination, that requires a tanker endorsement. Certainly in our current economic environment we could use a few more jobs, why not make them truck driving  jobs!

The articles mentioned above can be found at:
Chron.com: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/energy/6505588.html

New York Times: http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/first-biodiesel-pipeline-starts-operations/

Biodiesel producers deride EPA calculations

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

Biodiesel producers deride EPA calculations

Another article about the biodiesel debate. Not a lot of discussion on how it will benefit the trucking industry directly but it quotes a number of state representatives.

Minnesota Trucking Association Backing B-5 Mandate

Monday, May 4th, 2009


A great article was written by John Croman of KARE 11 news in Minnesota. The Article included interviews with the Minnesota trucking industry about their B-5 Bio diesel mandate.

The B-5 bio diesel has a 5% soy additive content. That 5% is an increase from the former B-2 mandate where diesel fuel had a 2% additive content. The article tagged the phrase “If you’re burning diesel fuel in Minnesota you’re now getting more soy in your diet.”

That is no doubt the case here.

In Minnesota on Friday, May 1, 2009 the state moved to B-5 bio diesel. Minnesota Commissioner of Agriculture Gene Hugoson told reporters at a news conference marking the B-5 milestone, “For state and national energy policy it is extremely important we move to less dependence on imported foreign oil,”

The most remarkable part of the story or this years B-5 roll out is that the trucking industry was a participant. According to Minnesota Trucking Association president John Hausladen,  “Due to the diligent work of the bio diesel manufacturers and distributors in this state the Minnesota Trucking Association is confident we will have no operational problems as we move to the B-5 mandate today.” He also said that the organization that represents truckers wasn’t a big fan of this alternative fuel when it was in it’s infancy.

It should be noted that Minnesota lawmakers were the first to okay bio diesel in 2005. Since it was introduction in Minnesota; Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington have followed suit.

Articles like this are a great story for the future. Those looking for truck driving jobs or considering truck driving schools can believe firmly that the industry is taking steps toward an overall greener transportation industry.

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