Our Future Depends on That French Fry Smell?? (May 22, 2006 Daily Bulletin).

This is going to be great. I cannot wait to sign up. let my truck be on of the guinea pigs and allow it to be one of the older engines to switch over to the new fuel and I will see if there is a power loss or if there is any change in the engine performance at all..

BSRancher

Our future depends on that french fry smell By Michelle Groh-Gordy, DriveTime

It’s a murky gray-brown stew of noxious fumes, and every year in May I look up into the sky and dream about moving to a place where the air isn’t so thick that you need a knife to cut through it. Usually I am looking at the rancid air of San Bernardino County, the county with the worst ozone air pollution in the United States, as I drive down the freeway in my vehicle, which is adding to the problem. There is hope on our smog-covered horizon, however, and it comes in the form of a marriage between a past enemy of the clean air cause and a current enemy of the palates of children – diesel vehicles and soybeans. The product that may be the savior of the very air we breathe is called biodiesel. It is one of the cleanest fuels in existence, it is already available, and we don’t have to depend on our neighbors overseas dredging up the liquefied remains of long-dead microorganisms to get it. Older diesel vehicles are infamous for emitting highly toxic soot particles that have been linked to increased death rates and lung diseases such as asthma and lung cancer. At present, most new diesel cars and light-duty trucks manufactured in and after 2004 do not meet strict California vehicle standards and cannot be sold in California. Now, diesel vehicles and their fuel sources are getting extreme makeovers. New, cleaner diesel vehicles that will meet California standards are expected to be available well in advance of the 2009 model year, when more stringent standards take effect. A better, cleaner diesel fuel will also be required nationwide by next month, further reducing emissions from diesel vehicles already on the road. But the future of our respiratory tracts may depend on our use of biodiesel, an exciting fuel alternative for diesel vehicles made from vegetable oils or animal fats. Biodiesel can be used in any diesel vehicle with little or no modification required, can be pumped and stored from the same service station facilities that currently provide gasoline, is biodegradable and nontoxic and, most important, is made completely from renewable resources. Even better? In addition to reducing net carbon dioxide emissions by 78 percent, as compared to petroleum diesel, biodiesel also comes with the added perk of making your car smell like french fries when it’s running. Though biodiesel’s current cost is comparable to that of regular diesel, increased supply and demand will undoubtedly lower the price substantially over time. Biodiesel has already met all the exacting standards of all concerned organizations, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the California Air Resources Board, the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Transportation. If California, the world’s fifth-largest economy and home to some 24 million motor vehicles, starts the ball rolling, the rest of America will surely not be far behind. Should legislators take a firm stand and force the hand of automobile manufacturers and fuel companies – requiring them to offer an increasing quantity of diesel vehicles and biodiesel fuel and a decreasing quantity of gasoline and gasoline-fueled vehicles – it won’t be long before we’ll all be able to inhale sweet, clean air. Perhaps someday, my grandchildren will look at me with dazed curiosity when I tell them of a time when the air was so brown and thick you could not see the mountains less than five miles from my home. Or that there was a time when we were so dependent on foreign oil, our very economy was threatened by our insatiable thirst for it. And then they will ask me, with all sincerity, how I could have ever once dreamed of leaving a place as beautiful as this. Michelle Groh-Gordy is a longtime traffic school instructor and the owner of InterActive! Traffic School Online (http://www.trafficinteractive.com) . Send questions to drivetime@dailybulletin.com or write to DriveTime c/o The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, PO Box 4000, Ontario, CA 91761. Some reader questions will be answered in the paper on the last Monday of every month.