It's Official: San Francisco's Entire Diesel Fleet Now Using Biodiesel

On Sunday, the New York Times' Carolyn Marshall wrote a piece entitled "San Francisco Fleet Is All Biodiesel", noting that "the city of San Francisco this week completed a yearlong project to convert its entire array of diesel vehicles — from ambulances to street sweepers — to biodiesel, a clean-burning and renewable fuel that holds promise for helping to reduce greenhouse gases."

While the debate over the benefits and merits, as well as the challenges and limitations of the use of biodiesel continues, this can only be seen as truly positive step in the battle against global warming. "Using virgin soy oil bought from producers in the Midwest" wrote Marshall, "officials said that as of Friday, all of the city’s 1,500 diesel vehicles were powered with the environmentally friendlier fuel, intended to sharply reduce toxic diesel exhaust linked to a higher risk of asthma and premature death."

“Just like secondhand smoke, diesel is one of the worst things we can breathe,” said the city’s clean vehicle manager, Vandana Bali of the Department of the Environment. The announcement came without fanfare from Mayor Gavin Newsom’s office late Thursday, even as Congressional lawmakers dickered over the particulars of an energy bill that would give automakers incentives to produce cars that burn biofuels."

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