San Francisco Makes Historic Biodiesel Announcement

On Thursday, May 18th, at the San Francisco Civic Center Plaza, City leaders gathered for the announcement of the largest commitment to biodiesel ever made by a major American city. The press conference began with the announcement by the Fire Chief that her department had begun its B20 pilot program. The Fire Chief was followed by SFPUC General Manager Susan Leal who announced the PUC's commitment to cleaning up San Francisco's sewer system and converting waste products into fuels.

Supervisor McGoldrick announced the formation of the Biodiesel Access Task Force, the first of its kind in the nation, which was created by legislation authored by Adam Hagen and me. I then had the privilege to speak and inform the press and the gathered crowd about the Task Force's two principal goals: creating incentives for improving access to biodiesel and biodiesel blends and streamlining the permitting process for co-op style B100 filling stations.

(Eric presenting to the crowd along with Mayor Gavin Newsom)

Mayor Gavin Newsom followed with his announcement of his Executive Order to move the entire City fleet to B20 by the end of 2007, making San Francisco the first major American City to make such a commitment.

These announcements were the culmination of a great deal of work by a number of people both inside City agencies and within the larger San Francisco biodiesel community. Brie Matthews and Mike Ferry spearheaded the effort at the Fire Department. Great photo of Brie in this story of the event. And members of the SF Biofuels Co-op have been working with the City on these and other biodiesel initiatives for over a year.

It was great to be part of this wonderful day and I look forward to continuing to work with the City of San Francisco to make this a successful program.

Written By: Eric Bowen