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Editorial

Biofuel mandate: a drop in the barrel

By Eric Hendricksen

The East County News, Aug 1, 2006, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Despite objections from oil industry representatives and to the delight of local environmentalists, the Portland City Council unanimously approved an ordinance in July that will require all gas stations in the city limits to blend biofuels with the gasoline and diesel they sell.

Biofuels – any fuels that are derived from recently living organisms or their metabolic byproducts – are unlike petroleum-based fossil fuels in that they can be reproduced quickly.

Portland’s ordinance specifies two biofuels in particular: ethanol, which can power a gasoline engine and is commonly produced from corn; and biodiesel, which can power a diesel engine and is produced from plant oils and waste animal fats.

The requirements for Portland gas station owners take effect in July 2007, mandating that all gas sold here must be blended with at least 10 percent ethanol, and that all diesel sold must contain a blend of at least 5 percent biodiesel.

Commissioner Randy Leonard, who proposed the ordinance, called the initiative an “important first step” that “will reduce our dependence on oil and lower greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles.”

As national demand for oil increases while events in the Middle East (the most endowed oil-producing region in the world) become ever more unstable, the need for us to reduce our dependence on foreign oil has never been more urgent.

Exactly how far biodiesel and ethanol will go toward reducing our dependence, however, remains to be seen.

During the same month that the Portland City Council was passing the heralded biofuels ordinance, The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published a study on the effectiveness of biodiesel and ethanol.

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