The National Biodiesel Board has officially cut the ribbon on its new building at 605 Clark Avenue in Jefferson City, MO. The facility is as eco-friendly and green as the fuel the employees inside promote as the carpet comes from recycled materials, the paint is nontoxic, and even the parking lot lights are powered by the sun. Even the building itself is a renovated, old building that used to belong to the Catholic Church.

During the ceremony today at the new location, a variety of speakers, including NBB CEO Joe Jobe, NBB Chairman and Minnesota soybean farmer Ed Hegland, Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt and Rep. Kenny Hulshof… all big backers of biodiesel… extolled the virtues of the green fuel and the beautiful new building.

Jobe told the crowd how the NBB was practicing what it preached in making the building as eco-friendly as possible. He also pointed out how the biodiesel industry is doing something to help the environment and America’s pressing energy needs.

“The petroleum industry has not built a new refinery in the last 30 years,” said Jobe. “However, the U.S. biodiesel industry has built more than 150 renewable refineries in the last three years, which support an estimated 20,000 jobs across the country.”

Hear some of Joe’s remarks here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/domesticfuel/JoeJobeceremony1.mp3]

Gov. Blunt disputed some of the fallacies put out by biofuels opponents.

“Plant-based biofuels have become a scape goat for lots of other problems. Food prices are rising because of higher fuel costs for farmers, higher fertilizer costs for farmers,” said Blunt. Plus, there are higher transportation costs, a multi-year drought in a food-producing part of the world, and increased demand by a world that wants to eat as well as the United States. “Those are the real drivers for food costs. It doesn’t stand up to argue that plant-based biofuels have caused these recent rises in the cost of food.”

Listen to some of Blunt’s remarks here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/domesticfuel/Bluntceremony1.mp3]

I promise you, I’ll have some more pictures to show you what the inside of this remarkable facility looks like and more remarks from the event in the near future, but for now, I just wanted to give you a taste of what is to come.