Biodiesel providing fuel for thought

Early this year, Carl’s Corner became the center of the current hubbub surrounding biodiesel, an alternative vehicle fuel that can be made from vegetable oil, seed oil or animal fat, and can run diesel-powered vehicles. Biodiesel’s champions, which include farmers and environmentalists, tout the fuel’s benefits at every opportunity: Biodiesel is a renewable resource, homegrown in the United States and relatively clean-burning – everything its crude-oil counterpart is not, and part of the solution to America’s reliance on foreign energy, they say.

..There are those who remain tepid on the idea of biodiesel. For one thing, they point out, biodiesel alone will never be able to quench America’s thirst for diesel fuel; we’ll still be reliant on crude oil to make up the difference. And though it burns cleaner than diesel overall, biodiesel does raise levels of one important pollutant, nitrogen oxides (NOx), which contributes to the formation of ozone.

Contra Costa Times