Biofuels: Local Energy Solutions
By Netaka White

As the environmental, economic, and energy-security concerns associated with a dependence on petroleum become more evident, Vermonters need to explore alternatives to fossil fuels and to develop both the supply and demand sides of these alternative fuel markets.

An integral part of these changes is the understanding that simply replacing our current level of energy consumption with renewable fuels or solar, wind, or hydrogen power cannot get us out of the fix we're in. Along the path to increased use of renewables, we will each have to wrestle with the American culture's push for faster, bigger, and more and more. We need to apply our collective knowledge (and political pressure) to living well with slower and smaller and enough-is-enough.
The anxiety and risks we face from global warming, Peak Oil, nuclear proliferation, and spiraling fuel costs have encouraged many of us to reexamine our lifestyle patterns and find for ways to reduce our energy consumption. We soon recognized the unsustainable nature of our near-total reliance on fossil fuels to transport us, warm us, feed us, clothe us, and build our prosperity. If we are paying attention to the warning signs, don't we have the responsibility to make course corrections while we still have the means? Why wait for nationally mandated fuel efficiencies, other obvious conservation measures, or even the promise of a “hydrogen economy” when supplies of conventional feedstocks (e.g., soybeans and rape seed) and emergent agriculturally based fuels can and should play a greater role in our transition toward a more equitable and sustainable future?

Among the grassroots groups sprouting up across Vermont to deal with energy issues, a group representing a range of political, social, and economic vantage points convened a series of meetings a little more than two years ago to foster development of a sustainable biofuels sector. The discussions brought into focus several biofuel strategies and their potential for providing for a portion of our local energy demand: on-farm methane to produce electricity, local production and use of pellets from wood waste and agricultural crops, and careful forest stewardship to procure firewood and biomass.

From these meetings the Vermont Biofuels Association (VBA) was formed as a nonprofit trade group whose mission is to build demand and capacity for locally produced biodiesel and other agriculturally derived fuels, and to serve as a resource for the development of a sustainable biofuels sector in Vermont.

Biodiesel, being a renewable, vegetable-based fuel, also blends easily with petroleum and is compatible with all compression ignition (“diesel”) engines and equipment including furnaces and boilers that run on No.2 oil. Blends of biodiesel are based on the percentage of biodiesel in relation to diesel fuel. B20 is 20-percent biodiesel (typical winter mix); B100 is straight biodiesel used in summer months.
When compared with straight petrol, these blends have less-harmful impacts on human health and significantly reduced greenhouse gas and particulate emissions. While it may increase oxides of nitrogen slightly (a precursor to smog), biodiesel is the only liquid fuel commercially available that has the distinction of providing more than 200 percent more energy than it requires to produce it (according to the most thoroughly peer-reviewed studies on record in the U.S. and Europe). And since the feedstocks to produce biodiesel are currently grown on Vermont's farms, the combined benefits of biodiesel are moving Vermont toward greater energy and fuel security, increasing local economic opportunities, and making for a cleaner environment.

Since the launch of the VBA there has been a 40-fold increase in the supply of biodiesel in Vermont (see graph). While the VBA can't take all the credit for this impressive statistic, the association has shared a leadership role in several initiatives that have led to a more-informed commercial sector, which has resulted in greater demand for biodiesel at all levels. The two-year Vermont Biodiesel Project is one such initiative. Supported by the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund, U.S. Department of Energy, Vermont Department of Public Service, and the office of Sen. Patrick Leahy, the project has generated goodwill and real momentum by taking a collaborative approach to statewide market development that focuses on the local level.

For instance, the towns of Hartford, Marlboro, and Norwich now use B20 in the town trucks and emergency vehicles, Green Mountain Power's entire fleet runs on biodiesel blends from B5 to B20, Motorcoach fleets as well as the UVM bus fleet run on B20, and Vermont loggers, excavators, grounds crews, and delivery trucks are switching to biodiesel. In addition, biodiesel blends heated several state buildings, more than 120 homes in Middlebury, and dozens more in Addison and Chittenden counties. The VBA and the Biodiesel Project partners have forged alliances among commercial scale “fleet and heat” end-users, Vermont's petrol and biodiesel suppliers, town energy committees, several of our state agencies and renewable energy groups, and Vermont's agricultural community.

The result: a more intelligent discussion of state energy policy, increased knowledge of the characteristics of biodiesel, hundreds of tons of harmful CO2 avoided, and more widespread availability of the fuel in our communities.

The biofuel alternative

Any serious consideration of an independent Vermont must seek to strengthen these networks that include our farms, our locally owned biofuel-production facilities, and Vermont's family owned fuel-supply businesses. This writer can almost detect a groan from those who would like to imagine an independent Vermont with no petroleum at all. But such a scenario is not just impractical; it overlooks the contribution from the responsible use of fossil fuels as we make a transition through the long Twilight of the Petroleum Age.

The soaring costs of fossil fuels threaten farmers with potentially devastating effects in the form of increased operational costs. Since biodiesel currently ranks as the most promising renewable, homegrown liquid fuel, even “small-scale” production (less than 1 million gallons per year) can support rural economies, improve regional air quality, and help insulate farmers and consumers from fossil fuel price and supply fluctuations. While most of the national-level biofuel development is focused on large-scale, industrial farms (20 million to 80 million gallons per year), New England farms fall outside of this model and grasp for ways to remain viable. Yet it is possible to see a shift toward renewable fuel alternatives when we focus on local-scale and regional solutions.

From Alburg to Brattleboro, not only is biodiesel being integrated into the existing fuel-supply infrastructure, but also more and more farmers are realizing that it makes sense to produce biodiesel on their farms to meet their operational needs. In just the last two growing seasons, several Vermont farms have begun cultivating feedstock or seed-oil crops for biofuels such as soy, mustard, sunflower, and rapeseed (canola). These same farms are also running their equipment, harvesting their primary crops, and heating their commercial greenhouses on 100-percent biodiesel that they have produced themselves – at half the cost of buying petroleum!

Eventually these biofuel production processes will also generate additional income, as well as high-protein meal for livestock (as a by-product). Some of these “energy crops” are being produced without the use of fossil-based fertilizers or pesticides, while others are using conventional methods. We have arrived at a time when our neighbors are exploring cooperative relationships around the production and distribution of energy. If ever there was an opportunity to develop a “Vermont Brand” of biofuel – a truly “green” portable fuel, a “natural” product free of genetic engineering and outside corporate control – it's now. From what we've seen, the citizens of the Green Mountains are of a mind and means to lean toward such an option.

Vermont's native energy pioneers are working on the possible, practical and attainable: folks like Roger Rainville and Heather Darby (the Rainville Farm in Alburg), Richard Wiswall and Sally Coleman (Cate Farm in Plainfield), Sally Hewes and Larry Scott (Ekolott Farm in Newbury), and John Williamson and Steve Plummer (Stateline Farm in Shaftsbury). And the list is growing. Not only are our farmers on the fuel frontier serving as models for self-sufficiency, they are pointing the way for Vermonters to reclaim our heritage built around family farms, native energy sources, and local foods.