Editorial: The march of biodiesel

Monday, June 26, 2006 | 7:13 a.m.

The milestones keep coming for the use and supply of biodiesel fuel in the Las Vegas Valley. The cleaner-burning fuel debuted here in early 2001, with an announcement by Haycock Petroleum, a local company since 1955, that it had formed a joint-venture partnership with a Florida-based biodiesel supplier.

Later that year the Clark County School District began purchasing biodiesel from Haycock as a pilot project for its buses. Seeing the success of that project, local governments and agencies began purchasing biodiesel in 2002 for their fleet vehicles.

Last fall Haycock opened the first biodiesel refueling station for the general public at its A Street and Washington Avenue facility. And last week the first network of biodiesel fuel pumps for the general public opened in Las Vegas at 16 stations operated by Sinclair Oil Co., whose fuel is supplied locally by Haycock.

Dan Hyde, fleet and transportation services manager for the city of Las Vegas and an area representative to the National Clean Cities Association, says he would bet the farm that the next milestone is local competition for biodiesel customers, with other big oil companies opening pumps at their stations.

We hope the demand builds quickly, enabling full-blown competition for this fuel that is a blend of regular diesel and vegetable oil, most commonly from soybeans. The biodiesel used by the school buses and fleet vehicles is 20 percent vegetable oil, while the Sinclair stations will be selling B-5, meaning biodiesel with a 5 percent blend of vegetable oil.

With increased supply and demand, the blend at gas stations will increase to 20 percent or beyond. The sooner this happens the better, as the more "bio" in the fuel, the more the country will save on imported oil and the cleaner our skies will be.

Given that alternative fuels are notorious for moving toward the marketplace at a snail's pace, the progress of biodiesel here is commendable. In five years we have gone from a pilot project involving government vehicles to a network of pumps for consumers. Availability of the fuel is beginning to grow now in many cities and we are glad to see Las Vegas among the leaders.