As more Americans seek relief from nearly $4-a-gallon gasoline in some areas by using alternative fuels, gas stations are changing their look to show the greener attitude.
This story in BusinessWeek says they’re designs that reflect the growing trend of hybrid and flex-fuel cars running on the more-and-more available ethanol and biodiesel:
In Eugene, Oregon, SeQuential Biofuels opened the state’s first commercial biofuel facility last year. The station dispenses ethanol as well as locally sourced biodiesel. Company cofounder Ian Hill worked with his mother, Susan Hill, AIA, an architect based in Lexington, Kentucky, to incorporate green features into the station’s design. A roof embedded with a 32.6-kilowatt photovoltaic array shelters the pump islands; its central panels have clear backings to transmit more daylight. The roof above an accompanying 2,000-square-foot convenience store also received a green treatment: It is planted 5 inches deep with 4,800 native Oregonian plants. Bioswales adjacent to the parking areas filter storm water.
Alan Eliot Goldberg, FAIA, a former design consultant to ExxonMobil, has developed a prototype station that embraces sustainable materials as well as solar power, which is used to create hydrogen fuel via electrolysis. Adapted from his Advanced Refueling Retail Center concept, it dispenses six different kinds of fuel. The 5,000-square-foot station will include a convenience store and an information center for hydrogen power. “If you’re introducing a new product, you should have a new concept,” Goldberg says of its design. Developed by the ARRC/H2 Alliance, the first station is planned for Syracuse, New York.
Oil-giant BP has even gotten into the act with its Helios House demonstration project, a 10,530-square-foot site in Los Angeles that produces solar energy, captures rainwater for irrigation, and even has a drought-tolerant green roof to reduce the amount of heat it produces in the city. It’s good enough that this station has actually received a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System of Gold.
Production has started at Iowa’s 13th biodiesel plant… this one, a Western Dubuque Biodiesel, LLC, plant near Farley. 
Western Dubuque Biodiesel, LLC, will produce fuel from soybeans or other vegetable oils at the new plant, which will be beneficial to area soybean farmers, says Ray Gaesser, (Iowa Soybean Association) president and a soybean farmer near Corning, Iowa.
While at the ACE Convention I got to meet fellow biofuels blogger Nathan Schock. Nathan is the public relations director for 
As schools gear back up for another year, many of them will run their buses on biodiesel.
Some people at City Hall on Wednesday were excited about the plant, which could produce 320 million gallons per year of biodiesel fuel.
Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has announced a new initiative to move his state from using two percent to 20 percent biodiesel by 2015.
One of the relatively newer members of the staff of the 
The executive vice president of the 
Attendance at the ACE Convention is a record with nearly 2,000 people here over the course of the event. Today is the final day and we’ll have a keynote address from South Dakota Senator John Thune soon.
The Kittitas Valley Wind Power Project got a recommendation from the Washington State Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council for the goveror to OK the project in March. But Governor Christine Gregoire asked the council to consider the feelings of some neighbors in the area who are opposed to the idea.