Action Alert: Save Biodiesel in Berkeley

We could use your help with emailing the Berkeley
mayor to keep the city vehicles running on biodiesel.
Thanks! Jennifer

The Ecology Center, Berkeley Biodiesel Collective, and
BioFuel Oasis urge you to email and/or call the
Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates and tell him that the city
should continue to run their vehicles on 100%
biodiesel (B100).

The City of Berkeley has been running its vehicles on
100% biodiesel (B100) for 1-2 years. They have
recently switched to B20 (20% biodiesel, 80% diesel).
There was an article in the Daily Planet that blamed
it on the quality of fuel they were getting. On
closer examination, we believe that it's not the
quality of the fuel, but that the city hasn't always
done the proper maintenance on their storage tanks and
on their vehicles to run biodiesel. Plus, a key
proponent of biodiesel in the Public Works Dept.
retired, so there is not the support there to take the
precautions and maintenance around running an
alternative fuel (biodiesel is probably the easiest
alternative fuel compared to CNG, electric, etc.).

The Ecology Center recycling trucks and the City of
Berkeley vehicles have pioneered the use of 100%
biodiesel (B100) and have won awards for it. The rest
of the country looks to them for advice and the lead.
We need to keep them on B100, the only petroleum-free,
renewable vehicle fuel, so others will continue to
follow.

Please email and/or call the mayor of Berkeley and
your councilperson. Include your address if you live
in Berkeley.

Mayor Tom Bates
mayor [at] ci.berkeley.ca.us
(510) 981-7100

Thank you for your help!

Here's some points from the Ecology Center about how
using biodiesel fuel benefits all of us:

o Using biodiesel in place of petroleum diesel helps
prevent
asthma. Studies have shown that emissions from
petroleum diesel are among the leading contributors to
asthma. Children living along transit lines, such as
the I-80 corridor, experience increased rates of
asthma and respiratory illness. The City's heavy
trucks use main arteries, such as Sacramento St, San
Pablo Avenue, University, and
Gilman. The effects of exhaust have a
disproportionate effect on lower income neighborhoods
where asthma rates are highest.

o A report issued by the Natural Resources Defense
Council
showed that a child riding inside of a diesel school
bus may be exposed to as much as 4 times the level of
toxic diesel exhaust as someone standing or riding
beside it. Our kids deserve cleaner air. Let's keep
our buses running on clean burning biodiesel. (For
the full report, go to
http://www.nrdc.org/air/transportation/schoolbus/sbusinx.asp
.)

o Recently, the City of Berkeley passed a resolution
to endorse the Kyoto protocol and to do its part to
reduce greenhouse emissions. Because it's made from
renewable plant sources, biodiesel fuel reduces
greenhouse-causing gases like no other fuel. Let's
continue to be a model for other cities to follow.

o Biodiesel contains 80-90% fewer carcinogens than are
found in petroleum diesel, and virtually eliminates
sulfur emissions that contribute to acid rain.

o Domestic biodiesel reduces U.S. dependence on highly

polluting oil products, environmentally destructive
oil drilling, and wars and interventions involving the
world oil market.

o In 2004, the EPA recognized the City of Berkeley for

Outstanding Environmental Achievement for its adoption
of biodiesel. It's important that Berkeley continue
this award winning program.