energy.agwired.com

In what is being compared to a military assault, Seattle-based Propel Biofuels is ready to launch its offensive to sell biodiesel in the Pacific Northwest.

This article in the Seattle Times sets the scene:

The makeshift headquarters of Propel Biofuels looks a bit like an Allied war room before D-Day.

“We’re not asking customers to radically change their behavior” in order to buy biodiesel, Propel founder Rob Elam said.

Elam might be the right man in the right place at the right time as the area is becoming a biodiesel mecca with the nation’s largest biodiesel plant, Imperium Renewables’ Gray Harbor facility… a 100-million-gallon-a-year refinery… in the neighborhood. And he might just have the winning attitude to make it all work:

Elam believes the secret to success is to make biodiesel visible and convenient. His team has talked to more than 100 gas-station owners on the West Coast, seeking arrangements to install pumps. “Generally the response is very enthusiastic,” Elam said. “We don’t ask them to have any hassle.”

Financial web site Kiplinger.com has put a biodiesel producer which uses a unique feedstock for biodiesel at the top of its “Five Green Up-and-Comers” stocks.

The article says that Nova Biosource Fuels use of animal fat, which would normally be thrown out, is at the head of the class:

Rising prices for the raw materials used to make biodiesel, known as feedstock, work in Nova’s favor. At least 75% of U.S. biodiesel is made from soybean oil, which costs about 31 cents per pound, up from 23 cents last year, and is expected to rise to as high as 36 cents per pound by 2008. But animal tallow, the fatty waste from meat processing, costs as little as 20 cents a pound, in part because there aren’t as many commercial uses for tallow as there are for soybean oil. Nova’s patented process can use 25 different feedstocks, including animal tallow, to produce biodiesel.

The Texas-based company started its first biodiesel plant in Iowa a year ago and hopes to soon have six more.

Country music legend Willie Nelson has been a longtime advocate of the American farmer and the American biofuels industry. While he’s been using a biodiesel-powered bus for his cross-country tour, one of his recent stops included New York City.

This story on the CNN Money web site says he was there to promote a new, non-profit group that supports biofuels:

Nelson was in town supporting the Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance, a non-profit group founded by his wife Annie and actors Daryl Hannah and Woody Harrelson, among others.

The group recently kicked off its official launch with a concert at the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square, where Nelson played until well past midnight.

The article goes on to say that Nelson used biodiesel made from New York City cooking grease to fuel up his buses and get back on the road again.