Owners of vehicles powered by diesel engines can get an attractive rebate by using biodiesel fuel.
Here’s the deal with the incentive: Fleet owners get a $1 per gallon refund up to 1,000 gallons of consumption a year. For individuals the limit is 200 gallons. It’s part of the Clean Cities program, a tentacle of the Department of Energy. Revenue to pay incentives comes from a soybean check-off.
According to the National Biodiesel Board’s website, the closest fueling stations to Allen County offering biodiesel are in Ottawa and Independence. As the fuel becomes more widely used — result of advertising, incentives such as the per-gallon rebate and realization it has no significant downside — its availability is certain to blossom.
Biodiesel is another renewable fuel, after all.
Similarly, ethanol started slowly as a percentage of petroleum-based fuel and now may be found most everywhere.
Biodiesel is made from vegetable oils and fats left over from conversion of raw soybeans to a wide variety of foods and other products.
Dennis Gruenbacher, an Andale farmer and member of the Kansas Soybean Commission, raves about biodiesel, pointing out using it for fuel reduces greenhouse gases, increases energy security (by replacing conventional petroleum-based diesel) and supports the Kansas farm economy.
The challenge for promoters is to get motorists to try the alternative fuel for the first time.
KANSAS farmers, including those in our neck of the woods when the opportunity arises, should embrace biodiesel, not just because of the purchase incentive but more so because it offers another opportunity to market soybeans. As with any merchant, farmers are keen on finding new or more compelling sources of income. Here’s one right in front of their combines.
Already local soybeans aren’t far from a biodiesel plant in Deerfield, Mo. Craig Mentzer told the Register at the height of the bean harvest, Deerfield was a viable option, but he was passing because there usually was a long line of trucks waiting to unload. That would tell us construction of other production facilities isn’t far off.
In Kansas, distilling plants operate in Emporia and Minneola.
Soybeans long have been a cash-crop staple for Allen County farmers. This year soybeans averaged on the upper end of historic yields, with some jumping into the 50- and 60-bushel range. Although handling and transportation cut into the price farmers receive in comparison to large terminal prices, it is instructive to note soybeans are fetching about $10 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade.
Farming always has been something of a gamble, with weather holding the trump card, and if biodiesel becomes more widely consumed, farmers will have another arrow in their economic quivers.
— Bob Johnson
