Grocery-giant Safeway is test-marketing 20% biodiesel at one of its Seattle stores. Check out this story on MSNBC.com:

Cherie Myers, a regional Safeway spokeswoman, said the company saw the environmentally conscious Northwest as a good place to test biodiesel’s commercial viability.

“This was our first step. Now we’re going to see how the consumer will respond to this,” Myers said.

Seattle might be considered a natural fit for the test. You might remember our earlier posts talking about Seattle-based Imperium Renewables and how it secured a record $214 million in investments and how Imperium is the largest producer of biodiesel on the west coast and could soon be the biggest refiner in the country.

Safeway officials say customers have been buying the biodiesel without any kind of promotion or special. The California-based grocer has 270 stores nationwide, so the potential could be huge.