Ben Franklin said, “Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.” That saying could apply to the latest dispute between some of the media and the National Biodiesel Board and biodiesel production levels for 2009.

While some major news outlets ran a story that put the number at 350 million gallons for the past year (a lot lower than the NBB or the Energy Information Administration estimates) and attributes the number to the NBB, the Board’s communications director Jessica Robinson tells Biodiesel Magazine that the number is quite a bit higher:

“The latest information we have (through the end of October) has put our estimates for the year at around 475 million gallons.”

What’s not in dispute is that 2009 was a bad year for biodiesel, with production levels dropping to pre-2007 levels. Let’s see if Congress can get the $1-a-gallon tax credit renewed and the new RFS2 done, and maybe that will get the green fuel back on track.