I think it is a travesty that a town like Greenwich wouldnt pay a little more for something clean burning as B20 biodiesel. They have the opportunity to make a statement to surrounding communities that they are serious when it comes to Green policy making. Instead they are choosing the bottom line and ignoring the things that make biodiesel important like: lower emmisions and support of a domestic product to name a few. With a tax base the size of Greenwich's they should gladly pay a little more for a cleaner renwable source of energy. Plus they have 'Green' in their name. Do the right thing GREENwich.

John:

A key to large-scale world-wide adoption of renewable energy is a cost advantage. Guilt trips may work for some elitist kooky granola-eating treehuggers, but not for the masses.

ejj, expecting a fuel to be both kind to the environment, cheaper than current fossil fuels (with the many decades of sunk costs already spent on infrastructure for said fuels) and also available almost immediately after being invented is perhaps asking for the moon on a stick. would you like it to be made of rainbows too? it's a chicken-and-egg situation, if the early adopters don't embrace renewable energy they can never build up the critical mass to benefit from the economies of scale that the current petrochemical industry enjoys. the most sensible target for renewable fuels is that they are at least cost-competitive with fossil fuels (ie the same price or only slightly more). this is a good jumping-off point for more widespread adoption, which should bring down costs and lead to a virtuous cycle.

It is be argued that increased costs of fuel early in the program will encourage the drive to fuel efficiency, new ways of thinking and innovation into the economy. This assists the freeing of energy tied economics away from dependency or addiction. Lead or be lead.
Given that fuel costs are more likely to increase and possibly re balance in the near future, an argument for adopting the higher pricing will assist the medium term economy.
I would suggest the good councilors are likely scared of the political implications of the vocal minority of people who cant stand the idea of investing unnecessarily. This in turn generates panic in the rest of the community with talk of living in the dark or living in caves and cooking over open fires.
Of course that is not going to happen.
On the other hand energy inefficiency combined with rising energy costs is a recipe for disaster.
Maybe next time around a more enlightened view will prevail.

Biodiesel in this country is dead. It costs too much
and uses edible crops. Most vehicles running in
America aren't diesel cars anyway. That's a European
paradigm. Better for the United States are Methanol,
Natural Gas, Hydrogen for ICE, and last and least, Ethanol, the subsidized engine eater. Any
liquid or gas fuel should only be used in range-extender
applications on PHEVs. The best engine for that purpose, IMO is the Rotary engine. It has the most power in the smallest package. It would be great in a Genset.

Greenwich got hustled by one supplier thinking they could squeeze the town's liberal leanings. With their kind of money Greenwich could have passed a local ordinance for all restaurant deep fryer oil to be purchased by the city. Contract with a biofuel maker to remove the glycerine, clean the oil and blend with regular diesel for B20. If necessary contract with neighboring towns for more fryer oil. This is NOT rocket science!

It's funny how 3 simple letters - soy - if missed can totally alter ones understanding and confuse the issue.

I often have the same problem in conversation, being a bit deaf, but mostly pick it up as the conversation starts to make little sense in context and I have a better understanding of the view being expressed. I understand it's a pain in the a**e, but we get there in the end.

the town paid $2.14 a gallon for diesel,
the town was offered $4.45 a gallon for biodiesel fuel,
the town has contracted to pay $4.05 a gallon for regular diesel fuel.
The price jump is mostly because the price of diesel increased by nearly double beginning in January 08 so that now $4.50 is now a very good retail price.

Our problem in large users like governments failing to adopt renewable sources of energy is that those first few customers make the technology viable, and let the price drop to competitive levels.

Lack of forward thinking is always a problem. This town couldn't even think of a fresh name and used one from England, how lame.

anon:

That's why it's called *New* England - but don't let history intrude on your ignorance.

So they were quoted (80% * 4.05 + 20% * X) = 4.45, or X= $6.05 / gallon for the biodiesel biodiesel component (B100). That's indeed high. I paid $5.40 a couple of weeks ago here in California (where the probably have to tanker it all the way from the Midwest). That includes taxes, which they don't have to pay. I assume they also get the federal subsidy, which last I checked was $1/gallon.

You expect biodiesel to be pushed up by rising petroleum, and remain a bit higher since it's a better fuel, minus a correction for the slightly lower energy density. So about the same price per gallon. That it is significantly higher I think is testimony to vendors not wanting to fully make the necessary capital investments to do it efficiently without expecting them to pay off in the first contract (year), for fear of the political chorus from people like swen. That would explain only one bid. That's how the friends of petroleum are trying to knock the wind out of this one competitor (biofuel) that's moderating the current oil windfall.

Greenwich should also ask about vegetable oil blended in at, say, 2-5%. Capital should cost almost nothing to do that, and it's a superb lubricity agent which could lower their maintenance costs.