Oil spills, biodiesel calculators, and the CDFA.

Like all of us I have spent the last few weeks observing the environmental horror that has befallen the Gulf Coast of Mexico. Nothing less than catastrophic ill can result from an oil spill of this magnitude. The environmental costs related to this accident will span generations and will alter commercial fishing and the local economy for the forseeable future. I am proud that the majority of biodiesel producers have operations that pose environmental risks several orders of magnitude lower than what we are seeing with events in Louisiana.

Clearly we need to develop clean, renewable, less perilous energy solutions.

We have been working very hard over the last few weeks.

We somehow finished a grant proposal, conducted a seemingly endless stream of intern interviews, cut man-ways for tanks, installed racking systems, and began a general reorganization of the plant. We made batches, fixed batches, and in one case gave up on a batch of fuel. We visited customer sights, delivered solutions, received a visit from an agent from the California Department of Forestry and Agriculture (CDFA) who inspected our facility towards fulfillment of the quarterly inspections required annually to maintain our rendering license .

I have been working on an update to a biodiesel recipe calculator. Feel free to take a look (click here for the Biodiesel Recipe Calculator) and email me your comments here. I hope to perform a major overhaul of this in the next month or two. If you have any suggestions for feature additions feel free to let us know.

Back to the Gulf Coast horror. We have been working on an animal friendly surfactant to assist with cleaning victims of the spill. The list of potential recipients includes turtles, seals, dolphins, pelicans, and a host of other creatures too numerous to enumerate.

HR 4213 is on the verge of passage, implementing amongst its other mandates the retroactive extension of the biodiesel excise tax credit. Many hope for passage by mid June. Reinstatement of the credit will not be not sufficient to drive major industry growth.

Make it a better place,

Todd

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