Some Wood River Valley residents are doing their part to improve the environment by using biodiesel fuel in their cars and trucks.
Biodiesel is made from plant or animal sources and can be used in all diesel engines. In the United States, it most commonly comes from soybeans. The fuel can be used in its pure form or mixed with petroleum diesel.
Biodiesel's benefits include reducing dependence on petroleum and emitting an exhaust with fewer pollutants.
"It's wonderful," said Ketchum resident Karen McCall, who uses biodiesel in her Volkswagen Jetta TDI. "You can step on the gas pedal and someone can be right behind the exhaust and just breathe it in. It smells like vegetable oil cooking."
The fuel is also touted as a way to rescue Midwest farmers from their economic doldrums. Country musician and Farm Aid organizer Willie Nelson early this year started a company to sell biodiesel to truck stops.
Over the past few years, biodiesel has cost about a dollar a gallon more than petroleum diesel. But recent oil price increases have reduced that difference considerably.
Any diesel engine can run on biodiesel. However, due to concerns about its effects on fuel pumps and injection systems, Toyota does not warranty its vehicles to run on biodiesel, and Volkswagen and Volvo only warranty use of 5 percent biodiesel. Volkswagen says it is investigating use of a 20 percent mixture. Even so, local biodiesel users report good results in some of those cars with the use of 100 percent biodiesel fuel. Hailey resident Brian Sturges said his 1996 Volkswagen Passat runs better on biodiesel than it does on petroleum diesel, and that mileage is unaffected.
Beginning last summer, a group of about a dozen local people began buying the fuel in bulk and sharing it. One of those is Bruce Tidwell, who runs the Building Materials Thrift Store in the Woodside area of Hailey. Tidwell said that during the summer he used 100 percent biodiesel fuel in his Volkswagen Jetta, as well as in the store's Mitsubishi 2-ton truck, and Dodge and Ford pickups.
"There's been no change in performance or mileage that I've seen in my vehicles," Tidwell said.
Ketchum resident Nick Maricich said he and his wife, Rosa, were motivated by the war in Iraq to look for a less petroleum-consumptive vehicle. He said they considered a gas-electric hybrid, but settled on a 2005 Volkswagen Passat diesel.
"We decided biodiesel was the way to go since when we use it at 100 percent we're completely off the grid," Maricich said. "I was a little bit leery at first, but now I'm a believer."
He said that apparently due to biodiesel's better lubricating properties, his car has a bit more horsepower than it does running on regular diesel.
This summer and fall, the local group was getting its fuel from United Oil in Hailey. However, United Oil Manager Carl Browning said the company has no means of storing biodiesel fuel in the winter, when it congeals if not heated. The fuel can still be used in vehicles in cold weather, but must be mixed with petroleum diesel. Browning said there is not enough demand for biodiesel in the area to justify the investment of at least $200,000 to install a heated underground tank and a pump.
In August, the Idaho Transportation Department's Hailey maintenance facility began using a 20 percent mixture of biodiesel, supplied directly from United Oil. ITD Fuel Systems Manager Jackie Routen said the agency also uses biodiesel in its vehicles in Boise and Caldwell. She said she is watching to see how the fuel works in the colder Wood River Valley climate this winter.
Cathy Zaccardi, board clerk with the Blaine County School District, said the district would like to use biodiesel if it were more available here.
"We're ready as soon as a carrier can bring it on board," she said.
McCall said that ever since United Oil stopped supplying biodiesel once the cold weather set in, she's been buying a 20 percent mixture at a filling station in Boise whenever she goes there. The fuel is also available at a service station in Shoshone.
"There's so much happening with biodiesel that you'd think we could get it here," she said.
Though biodiesel can help reduce dependence on petroleum, it is unlikely to ever be a complete substitute. Authorities on the subject seem to agree that producing enough biodiesel to do so would require the use of too much agricultural land, as well as massive amounts of fertilizer and pesticides.
"It's going to have to be a compilation of a lot of things that we do," McCall said. "There are all these little ways of making a difference."
