Tennessee’s Department of Transportation plans to hand out $1 million in grants to help promote biodiesel and ethanol at gas pumps along the interstates in Tennessee.
This story in the Chattanooga (TN) Times Free Press says one of the first Green Island Corridor grants is going to a station in Cleveland in the southeast part of the state:
Tom Robertson, owner of Fuel & Mart USA No. 4 on Lee Highway, said the store will convert a gasoline tank into one suitable for biodiesel within weeks.
“I would say we’ll begin selling it within a couple of months,” Mr. Robertson said.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation awarded $12,024 to Fuel & Mart USA No. 4 in November, state officials said.
TDOT officials said the state set aside about $1 million to help establish a network of biodiesel and ethanol stations along Tennessee interstates.
TDOT spokeswoman Julie Oaks said the idea is to have stations no more than 100 miles apart, giving travelers a chance to refuel using alternatives.
She said the state has already approved grants for 64 to 66 pumps and could fund up to 22 more. No more state or federal dollars have been set aside, she said.
“We are hoping to receive additional state dollars,” she said.
Officials believe the grants will make it easier for the small businessmen who run the gas stations to make the infrastructure changes needed. Some estimates say the cost of converting a tank can be $16,000 to $18,000.
More power customers in Alabama soon could be enjoying lower power bills, thanks, in part, to a decision by that state’s public service commission to approve a renewable energy rate decrease.
security, and make us not as dependent on natural gas and other (resources), and helps the environment improve.”
The ethanol industry has come a long way this year and a large part of the renewable fuel’s success is unquestioningly a result of the concentrated efforts of the 
So you say you haven’t heard enough from the 16 candidates running for President? There’s just not been enough media coverage for your tastes? OK, so maybe you think you’ve heard enough about the crowd (especially if you’re living in Iowa or New Hampshire), but you do need some information to make an informed decision, right? Especially when it comes to how they stack up on alternative energy issues.
St. Louis-based AmerenUE, which serves 2.4 million electric customers and nearly one million natural gas customers in a 64,000 square mile area of Missouri and Illinois, has announced its first venture into wind energy.
The American Lung Association of Minnesota has teamed up with the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association to offer a scholarship to a senior who writes the best essay on biodiesel.
Current Minnesota high school seniors with plans to attend postsecondary education are eligible and encouraged to submit a personal essay on the topic of biodiesel. Two scholarships will be awarded. The author of the top essay selected will receive a $500 scholarship and the second place essay will be awarded a $250 scholarship. All essays and application materials must be submitted by 4:30pm on Wednesday, April 30, 2008.
Chemical engineers at the University of Arkansas were successful in using so-called supercritical methanol to transform chicken fat and tall oil fatty acid into biodiesel fuel, the university said Wednesday in a news release. The yield was greater than 90 percent, the university said.