The National Biodiesel Board (NBB) welcomed the Gas City station in Romeoville, Illinois as the latest addition to the BioTrucker network. BioTrucker is a program that encourages truck stops to sell environmentally friendly, domestically produced biodiesel blends.
Biodiesel is an alternative to diesel fuel. It’s made from diverse renewable resources, such as recycled cooking oil and soybean oil.
Bill Schireman, Executive Vice President of Gas City, says they will be celebrating by offering customers a savings of 50 cents per gallon on the purchase of B11 – diesel fuel blended with 11 percent biodiesel – on Thursday, July 23 from 12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. The B11 blend, common in Illinois, normally sells for about the same price as regular diesel fuel.
“Gas City is proud to be part of this program and we always look for ways to improve the environment and reduce the dependency on foreign oil and we think it will benefit us going forward in the future,” said Schireman. “In fact we are going to add a few more locations here in the next couple of months.”
BioTrucker is a network of more than 5,000 fueling locations offering trucking companies and owner-operators the benefit of purchasing fuel without a transaction fee, and at cash prices.
NBB BioTrucker Consultant Sharon Bell says BioTrucker is a program to encourage more truck stops to make biodiesel available. “We developed maps that show the truck stops and truck accessible locations that are now available on BioTrucker.com, so it’s a way to help truckers find biodiesel and a way to educate them about biodiesel and how it can help their engines, help the American farmer and alleviate some use of petroleum and imported oil,” she said.
The Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup racing series transport team will be visiting the Gas City BioTrucker stop Thursday as they fuel up their trucks with the biodiesel blend. They are en route to the Autobahn Country Club in Joliet for the race this weekend, July 25-26. Volkswagen is using biodiesel blends to power its racecars, transport vehicles and generators throughout the 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup racing season, in partnership with its official fuel sponsor, HYPERFUELS.
Jess Hewitt, President of HYPERFUELS and NBB Marketing Chairman, says the racing series and the BioTrucker program are complementing each other in helping to promote the benefits of biodiesel to truckers and the public in general.
“These drivers love the biodiesel blends. They do stop at every truck stop that is BioTrucker networked and they are filling up with biodiesel as they go across the country,” said Hewitt.
Listen to short back-to-back comments from Schireman, Bell and Hewitt here: