Officials in the state of Maryland have pledged to buy more vehicles that run on ethanol and biodiesel and triple the number of hybrids in the state’s fleet by 2011.
This story in the Baltimore (MD) Sun says the Board of Public Works, which approved the policy, is welcoming the news as a way to make Maryland more eco-friendly:
“Even though it is a small step, it is something that is concrete and solid, and we can focus on it,” said Comptroller Peter Franchot. “We’re leading by example.”
The cornerstone of the plan is for 40 percent of the state’s vehicle purchases over the next three years to operate on biofuels, principally ethanol and biodiesel.
There are a couple of major ethanol and biodiesel plants in the works for the Chesapeake Bay area… the biggest ones in the country, IF they can clear some of the opposition’s hurdles put before them.
Ethanol producer POET is getting ready to open yet another ethanol plant… this time, a 65-million-gallon-a-year facility near Portland, Indiana.
Monsanto’s Gro-Ethanol Program, in conjunction with GreenField Ethanol, is giving corn farmers in Ontario a new market.
“If this does come to fruition, there is going to be some winnowing of the ethanol industry. Some plants are going to go out of business,” said the report’s author, David Peters. He teaches in the university’s agricultural economics department.
Australian researchers have found that diesel exhaust does much more damage to people’s health than does biodiesel’s exhaust.
Associate Professor Leigh Ackland, Associate Head of Deakin’s School of Life and Environmental Sciences, led a team of researchers who compared the effects of diesel exhaust and biodiesel exhaust on human airway cells. They found that diesel exhaust damaged and killed the cells, while biodiesel exhaust had little effect.
To whet your appetite for the upcoming International Congress on Biodiesel (as if you needed anything else to get you excited about the green fuel!), the organizers of the November gathering in Austria are offering a new podcast.
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Oil giant BP has lived up to its motto of going “beyond petroleum” with its $5 million gift to the University of Wyoming’s School of Energy Resources… $2 million of that going to wind energy development.
She stormed the beaches of Normandy on June 6th, 1944 in a bid to free Europe of Nazi tyranny. Now, LST (Landing Ship Tank) 325 is storming its way around America, running on biodiesel… possibly showing Americans how to shed their dependence on the tyranny of foreign oil.
As more than 24,000 people shuffled on board the World War II-era LST 325 ship while docked along the Illinois River in Peoria, August and September, they passed a banner proudly proclaiming “Fueled by Biodiesel.”