Setting the record straight about biodiesel
January 12, 2011
BY Ron Kotrba
“Biodiesel is a transitional fuel that isn’t sustainable and achieves no real greenhouse gas reductions.”
What would you do if you heard a statement like this, proclaimed to hundreds of people who may take it for fact? Would you let it slide, or would you defend biodiesel and set the record straight?
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At the Pacific Northwest Biomass Conference & Trade Show, in a panel during the general session, a speaker made this very comment at the beginning of their presentation.
I awaited the opportunity to ask the speaker about this.
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“I enjoyed your presentation," I said, "but early on you said biodiesel is a transitional fuel that isn’t sustainable and achieves no real greenhouse gas reductions. How do you reconcile your statement with the U.S. EPA’s findings that soy biodiesel achieves more than 50 percent greenhouse gas reductions [compared to the petroleum diesel baseline], and biodiesel made from waste materials achieves 80 percent reduction?”
The speaker said they weren’t familiar with EPA’s findings. How does one make such a statement without being able to back it up?
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