Glacier Park Diesels Run on Biodiesel

8 April 2005

Missoulian. All diesels in the Glacier National Park fleet, including the heavy-duty rotaries, excavators and bulldozers, run on a B20 biodiesel blend (20% biodiesel, 80% petroleum diesel).

The facility manager, Lou Summerfield, filled his first tank with B20 in 2002, and just kept going.

“We just thought it was the right thing to do. It's not about being right. It's about doing right. And alternative fuels are the right thing to do.”

All the park vehicles run on some form of alternative or renewable fuel. All new gasoline vehicles purchased for the fleet now are E85 flex fuel vehicles. The Glacier buses run on propane (LPG).

Summerfield will start looking for a soybean oil derivative to replace the machinery's hydraulic fluid.  The park is also testing the use of B100 (100% biodiesel). A Yellowstone Park test B100 truck has logged nearly 200,000 miles.