This is actually kind of bad news...
They will be using mostly amount of palm-oil, imported from Malaysia. Malaysia is about 60% Islamic. How is importing palm oil from an Islamic thirld world nation any better than importing crude petroleum from an Islamic third world nation?
Palm oil comes from tree plantations usually on slashed rain forests. Palm plantations don't consume the same level of CO2 that the rainforest did - which is an additional hit in the CO2 absorbtion capacity of the earth.
And finally, palm oil based biodiesel begins to gel in the 50s. Thats right, 50 degrees!
All in all, if I can help it, I will not be buying biodiesel made from palm oil.
Here is the quote from the article:
Quote:
The company isn't immediately planning to buy Washington-grown canola oil because of the price, Plaza said.
"We have to be competitive with diesel," he said.
But he added that the company will consider buying from local farmers, who might be encouraged to grow the seeds when they see a firmly established market for them.
"They just have to be competitive with foreign [vegetable] oil," Plaza said.
The refinery could help create a more stable state biodiesel industry, said Matt Steuerwalt, a senior energy policy adviser to Gov. Christine Gregoire. Now there is little infrastructure to make the fuel.
But the project also could hurt smaller biodiesel plants proposed in Eastern Washington because it would hold down prices and meet demand for biodiesel, said Chad Kruger of Washington State University's Climate Friendly Farming project.
But Bruce Nave, an Arizona businessman looking to build a biodiesel plant in Whitman County, predicted the Grays Harbor project's use of foreign palm oil could make it less attractive to consumers.
"We're trying domestically to get off imported fuels, whether or not it's a renewable fuel or petroleum," he said.
The plan to use Malaysian palm oil also raises questions for some about the environmental benefits, because rain forests in Malaysia are being cleared for palm-tree plantations, said Brant Olson, of the environmental group Rainforest Action Network.