The initial meeting of the Eastside chapter of the Northwest Biodiesel Network resembled more of a preaching to the devoted choir Monday as all 12 visitors to the North Bend Railroad Depot were self-professed converts to the alternative fuel and its associated technologies.
When the plethora of expertise became evident — much of the two hours was spent exchanging detailed tips on how best to use, and make, biodiesel — representatives of the Seattle-based group scrapped most of their introductory presentation and allowed the group to engage in a free-flow of ideas and suggestions.
All present were long-established veterans of biodiesel — a source, advocates say, of cleaner burning renewable fuel for diesel engines made from oilseed crops and even their derivatives, such as used vegetable oil — and some had traveled as far as Ellensburg and Cle Elum to participate in the first meeting of the Network’s newest chapter.
The goal of the group, which plans to meet the second Wednesday of each month at 7 p.m. at the Depot, is to espouse the use of the biodiesel in all its forms, as a fuel for personal vehicles, tractors and even home-heating purposes.
Future meetings promise to focus on home-brewing of biodiesel, how to use the alternative fuel, the best vehicles to purchase and other uses for the organic-based mix that advocates say can free the U.S. from the bounds of foreign oil production.
“I’m very concerned about what’s going on with the economy,” said Stephen Kangas, a biodiesel advocate and volunteer responsible for creation of the new chapter of the network.
“It has become apparent that the cost of petroleum is one of the principal drivers of where we are right now,” he said, noting that most economic challenges, ranging from home heating to keeping food on the table, could be traced to America’s insatiable demand for foreign oil.
“Biodiesel is the thing that makes a lot of sense right now,” Kangas said.
A reliance on foreign oil, he said, is “damaging the local, U.S. and global economy, polluting the atmosphere, water and soil, and impeding farming business success.”
And, he stressed, “the supply is limited.”
Biodiesel – an alternative fuel source made up exclusively of renewable sources such as canola or soybeans – could free America from the bounds of foreign control, as well as bolster the local economy.
“Washington is No. 14 in the U.S. in oil consumption,” Kangas said. “We’re not saints here in this state.”
The manufacture and use of biodiesel, Kangas said, could result in independence from foreign control. It represents a cheap energy source with near-zero emissions, is sustainable and convenient to use and could be a huge source of economic growth to the state’s economy.
While most commercially available biodiesel is in blends of organic and petroleum diesel ranging from 5 to 50 percent, many of those in attendance Monday said they use B-99 – an almost purely organic fuel that contains only 1 percent fossil-based petroleum.
A major thrust of the network is to advocate both the manufacture and use of biodiesel, which users call “an easy to use, drop-in substitute” for petroleum diesel, that can be used in virtually any diesel-powered vehicle manufactured after 1985, and even older vehicles with some modifications.
Not only does it burn cleaner – producing as much as 78 percent less carbon dioxide if the source is soybeans, even cleaner with other materials – biodiesel could go far to rejuvenating the state’s economy, Kangas said.
Snohomish County, he said, recently embarked on a program geared at offering local farmers an alternative to selling their land to developers by producing crops that the county would purchase to produce the alternative fuel, which would, in turn, be used to fuel the county’s fleet of vehicles.
For more information on biodiesel and the Northwest Biodiesel Network, see nwbiodiesel.org.
Reach reporter Ed Farrell at efarrell@snovalleystar.com or 392-6434. Comment on the story at www.snovalleystar.com.
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