Can small and community-scale biodiesel plants be economically viable and contribute to rural development in the Western United States? A new report by the Western Organization of Resource Councils (WORC), “Homegrown Prosperity from the Bottom Up,” answers that question with case studies of biodiesel plants in those western rural communities… and the answer is YES!
This article from Biodiesel Magazine says the report, entitled “Homegrown Prosperity from the Bottom Up” and co-written by Wilbur Wood, found that these small, local biodiesel plants can “disengage family farmers and ranchers from domination by the global fossil fuel market, enhance both fuel and food security, create jobs, and keep money in local communities”:
Brett Earl, co-owner of Earl Fisher Biofuels LLP in Chester, Mont., is featured in case study number one. Earl views biodiesel as a community-based industry. “We can grow the oil seeds locally, we can manufacture the fuel locally, and we can consume the products locally,” he said. The facility currently operates at 275,000 gallons annually and employs three full-time employees, with plans to expand to 1 MMgy and employ six to ten workers. Earl said that would make Earl Fisher Biofuels the third largest employer in the small town of Chester. When operating at a larger scale, Earl wants to share it with other rural communities in Montana, proving it can work.
Not only does the report use the successes of the community-scaled biodiesel plants as examples of how they could spark economic growth in rural areas, the WORC makes the case that there should be federal and state government policies to help these small production facilities.
The little guy on the left might not look very pretty, but it could be beautiful when it comes to turning food waste into biodiesel. It’s the larva of the Black Soldier Fly, and this bug is at the heart of EcoSystem Corporation’s MAGFUEL™ biofuel feedstock model. 
When at full capacity, Black Soldier Fly food scrap waste conversion technology could yield up to 190,000 gallons of crude (non-food) natural oils per acre of bioreactor surface area annually. In comparison, soybean yields an average of 40 gallons of oil per acre annually. EcoSystem’s integrated bioreactor is estimated to be deployed at a cost of less than $100 per square foot with minimal use of utilities for other than periodic cleaning and heating.
A Seattle-based company has come up with a new method of boosting the growth of algae that will help make the green scum more commercially viable for biodiesel production.
A bipartisan group of congress members has introduced a bill that would require that 80 percent of all new automobile and light trucks sold or manufactured in the U.S. be capable of running on either E85, M85 (a methanol-gasoline blend of 85 percent) or biodiesel.
The group has developed a type of biodiesel that, even at a 100 percent mix, won’t gel at more than 60 degrees below zero. That’s even colder than what conventional petroleum diesel clouds at (about -15 for the not-so-green fuel). It’s Permaflo Biodiesel, and to put it to the test, Ryan West, Director of New Uses for the alliance, led a group on a 1,400 mile trip across Alaska to the Arctic Circle. Along the way, they ran B100 in their vehicle and generator as they camped their way across the state in temperatures this winter of more than 20 below! 
There is an advantage to self publishing because you can truly say what you want to say. And Ronald H. Bowman, Jr. does just that in his book, “The Green Guide to Power Thinking Outside the Grid”. I originally thought the book was going to be about the development of the “
Senators John Thune (R-SD), Jon Tester (D-MT), and Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) have 
The proposed legislation would change the definition of “Renewable Biomass” to more closely conform to earlier versions of the RFS and the 2008 Farm Bill. That would allow pre-commercial and post-commercial waste from national forests to be eligible feedstocks under the definition of “Renewable Biomass” and allows for waste materials to be removed from our public lands which will assist in reducing fire danger.