Biodiesel Roundtable

Fleets Session

Led by Martin Borque of the Ecology Center and Jolie Ginsberg of the BBC

In attendance:
Todd Siders
Jon Bauer
Lindsay Hassett
Otto Huber
Wolfgang Rougle
Carol Lanigan
Michael Miller
Jeffrey Marth
Johanna Schultz

Summary:
Martin Borque opened with a description of the process the Ecology Center went through in lobbying the City of Berkeley to switch its municipal fleet to 100% Biodiesel (from B20), even at a time of fiscal uncertainty. Following this we discussed ways to replicate this success, leverage it, and ways in which it was a unique case.

Following the example of the Ecology Center, the City of Berkeley now runs approx. 200 vehicles and equipment on B100. It has two fueling stations. The volume is about 100,000 gal/year. The Ecology Center had decided to move to Biodiesel in 2000 because they had issues with the increasing use of CNG as an alternative fuel, especially in Berkeley.

The Ecology Center’s overall strategy was to decide who are the players, how does $ flow in the city, and what are the leverage points. They worked the political side at the same time as the technical side. They worked with a member of the City Council, as well as making presentations to six of the city’s Citizen Commissions, before even bringing the issue to City Council. The EC created a draft resolution that citizen commissions passed that did not address the fiscal considerations – that is the prerogative of the Council alone. They later proposed that the costs come out of the Solid Waste Budget, not the General Fund, so that the increased costs would be paid for through customer fees and not impact other important Berkeley programs. This cost increase works out to less than ½ % increase per customer. At the same time, they worked with the Department of Public Works to determine how much fuel was being consumed (to determine incremental costs) and to introduce them to the benefits of the fuel, so there wouldn’t be resistance from the Department.

The leverage points the Ecology Center used were:

  • Fuel costs are a small part of the total Public Works budget.
  • Impacts are in public health (asthma, pollution) and safety.
  • There is no conversion cost as with other alternative fuels.
  • Operational increases are easier to pass in a budget crunch than capital expenses.
  • Transitional Fuel – does not impede the ability to switch to Hydrogen Fuel Cells in the future.

    • Future steps:

  • Working on creating a Fleet Operators Manual for Biodiesel and a Decision Makers Kit.
  • Would like to do a Biodiesel 101 for decision makers and lead mechanics.
  • Study the maintenance costs by vehicle type<
  • Work with AC Transit
  • In Petaluma, the school district is looking to switch to CNG
  • In Alameda, the electric utility has already started using BD for their backup generator.
  • In San Francisco, there is a group called Dump Diesel that is opposed to MUNI using diesel buses.
  • Educate them.