Tuesday afternoon greenery: 3 notes

| Environment | West Seattle news

FIRST: That’s the Propel biodiesel station taking shape (first mentioned here last month), with the pump canopy now up, at 35th/Barton. According to the Propel website, it’ll sell B20 and B99 grades. SECOND: Not far away, we stopped by Bird on a Wire Espresso today and noticed they’ve switched to compostable disposable cups, for a surcharge (more info on the Bird website). THIRD: During the 34th District Democratic Caucus on Saturday, West Seattle’s King County Councilmember Dow Constantine mentioned something about “climate change work with Congress (this) week.” We asked his staff for details, and here’s what they sent:

King County Councilmember Dow Constantine is participating in the Local Government Climate Change Summit in Washington, D.C. on April 8, 9, and 10.

Constantine is a member of Climate Communities, a consortium of local elected officials from jurisdictions who have taken steps to fight global warming. â€œKing County has been a national leader in the effort to fight climate change,â€ said Constantine. â€œClimate Communities is a forum where we can provide leadership to other local governments across the country.â€

Constantine co-sponsored a 2006 ordinance authorizing King Countyâ€™s participation in the Chicago Climate Exchange, a program that reduces greenhouse gas emissions in North America through binding goals and the trading of â€œcarbon creditsâ€ granted for a variety of activities such as reforestation efforts, forest protection, and management of landfill emissions. Last year, King County joined several other large urban counties nationwide for the Cool Counties Climate Stabilization Initiative, an effort aimed at achieving an 80 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050.

King County is also a leader in implementing hybrid technology in its transit and regular fleets, is currently reviewing green building legislation, and is working to expand transit options through the creation of the King County Ferry District.

Mac April 8, 2008 (5:42 pm)

People are still doing the biodiesel thing? Hasn’t anyone noticed the multitude of ill effects? Rising food prices? Worse carbon footprint than petroleum? Zuh?

forrest (with 2 Rs) April 8, 2008 (6:29 pm)

Rising food prices have more to do w/ the increasing cost of gasoline (and thus transport) than biodiesel…

shihtzu April 8, 2008 (7:09 pm)

I’ve also heard food prices are going up because farmers are growing corn for biofuel instead of wheat.

JT April 8, 2008 (8:15 pm)

Thank-you Mac and shihtzu. This has become a religion and to speak out against it, blasphemy. It’s hurting the world in so many ways, but the devoted don’t want to hear it.

http://www.ecofriend.org/entry/six-biofuel-misconceptions/

firwave April 8, 2008 (8:38 pm)

Biodiesel isn’t a silver bullet, but is a part of the overall solution. My understanding is that biodiesel can be made from other oils, not just corn and made from waste veggie oils. So, yeah, people are still doing biodiesel and that’s a good thing if done right…

Melissa April 8, 2008 (10:29 pm)

Even Time magazine is hip to what a scam biodiesel is:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1725975-1,00.html

WSB April 8, 2008 (10:53 pm)

Response to that article fwiw
http://www.25×25.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=402&Itemid=57

danno April 8, 2008 (11:23 pm)

It is the Global Warming religion that is the farce.

Wake up lemmings!

Bill R April 8, 2008 (11:35 pm)

If you look carefully, a great deal of the environmental community is skeptical of biofuels, especially corn ethanol. It is corn farmers and the politicians getting money from Monsanto and Cargill who have really pushed this beyond where it should be this far. Mandated ethanol targets are foolish.

The it is the second round of biofuels, produced from crop waste and even algae that have more promise. They will never come close to replacing the volume of oil currently produced, and since that oil will not last more than 20-40 more years, its pretty obvious that we need to be moving strongly to electrify transportation over that period… climate change or not.

Nick April 8, 2008 (11:55 pm)

Biodiesel is NOT made from corn. e85 is not worth it but biodiesel is great and I get 46+ miles per gallon using a bio-petro blend. Good job Propel!

CandrewB April 9, 2008 (5:48 am)

Biodiesel and ethanol are completely different. Biodiesel is about a 100 year old technolgy and can be made from many different plant oils. You can even make it in your garage if you had too. Ethanol is a scam perpetuated by Cargill and ADM. I cannot wait until the Japanese or someone other than VW decides to bring over diesel engines.

firwave April 9, 2008 (6:25 am)

Perhaps a biofuels 101 class is in order? Seems like there’s a lot of misinformation out there…

JunctionMonkey April 9, 2008 (7:08 am)

For more information on biodiesel check out the NW Biodiesel Forum at http://www.nwbiodiesel.org/biz.htm.

shihtzu April 9, 2008 (7:20 am)

Thanks CandrewB. Where do the “raw ingredients” for Propel’s biodiesel come from?

CandrewB April 9, 2008 (11:46 am)

Are the Feds still paying farmers not to farm?

From Propel’s website:

Where does Propelâ€™s vegetable oil come from?
Propel uses the most local feedstock that meets our quality and price standards, working with local farmers and producers to offer regionally grown and produced fuel at our locations.

If crops are grown to make fuel, will there be less for our food supply?
No, biodiesel feedstocks produce both meal for food, and oil for biodiesel. Propel only partners with providers who use fuelstocks that do not adversely affect the environment or fellow human beings.

Does biodiesel impact food cost?
Not directly, Petroleum cost is the largest driver of food prices. Several factors drive crop prices including seasonal weather, crop output, transportation costs and demand. On a positive note, American farmers have seen a small increase in crop value based on biodiesel driven demand. As such, biodiesel fuelstocks provide a dependable market for American farmers, helping to stabilize their income. The characteristics of biodiesel fuelstocks also provide an opportunity to expand into unused available land, offering additional revenue to our domestic farmers.

JD April 9, 2008 (2:58 pm)

In response to the article in Time.

http://dieselgeek.blogspot.com/2008/04/25×25-responds-to-time-magazine-article.html

Biodiesel User #276 April 17, 2008 (5:00 pm)

This biodiesel station is now open. I filled up there today!

JT April 19, 2008 (2:51 pm)

More studies out this week about how bio-fuels are worse for the environment than fossil fuels. This pertains to fuel made from soy, palm oil etc., not those of you using waste veggie oils. Second article is about ethanol (corn) and rising food prices.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/GlobalWarming/story?id=4257226&page=1

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=4683795&page=1

JT2 April 20, 2008 (1:10 am)

The “gotcha” journalism reporting biodiesel’s flaws have been widely debunked by science. Meanwhile, plug-in hybrids have been shown to significantly increase CO2 (logical- think about where our electricity comes from (primarily coal, not to mention the biodiversity destruction of NW dams), add in the mining required for battery materials, and they still use imported gasoline!)

Food vs fuel and increased CO2 footprint are status quo messages actively backed by Big Oil. Look behind the curtain and don’t be a rube.