SF MTA begins renewable fuel pilot for maintenance vehicles

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) is launching a pilot program to fuel eight SFMTA medium-duty maintenance trucks with biodiesel. Expansion of the pilot program is planned for 2013.

Dogpatch Biofuels dispenses pure renewable biodiesel, recycled from locally collected restaurant grease. The SFMTA trucks, such as the ones used to maintain underground tunnels, will join the SFMTA's 600 buses and other vehicles that already fuel with blended biodiesel (B20). As part of the agency's Clean Air Plan and green purchasing, the use of locally recycled biodiesel reduces emissions and fuel-related greenhouse gases will add to the agency's sustainability efforts. The SFMTA currently uses about 1 million pure gallons of renewable biodiesel annually.

“The use of organic recyclable biofuels reduces greenhouse gases for a safer and healthier San Francisco,” said Mayor Ed Lee. “This biodiesel pilot program for SFMTA maintenance trucks demonstrates our investment in energy efficiency and our need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.”

“We are proud to use local biofuels to provide the much-needed maintenance that will keep our system running,” said Ed Reiskin, director of transportation, SFMTA. “This is one more step in our ongoing efforts to reduce greenhouse emissions and pollutants, making San Francisco transportation cleaner and more environmentally resourceful.”

Dogpatch Biofuels emerged through the Mayor's Biodiesel Access Task Force, a public and private advisory group put in place to help guide and foster more sustainable public diesel fuel options in San Francisco. Dogpatch Biofuels was founded by Task Force members Robin Gold and Michele Swiggers, and has roots in the earlier efforts of the San Francisco Biofuels Cooperative.

As founding members of the San Francisco Biodiesel Co-op and the station's current owners, Jolie Ginsburg and Brian Deninger, along with Pannell, have the continuing goal of displacing petroleum with more ecological solutions. To this end, Dogpatch Biofuels provides onsite biodiesel and blended biodiesel services for construction equipment, with educational seminars, in addition to operating Incredible Adventures Tours, the only tour company in the nation operating on pure renewable biodiesel, and producing locally-invented Biolighter petroleum-free charcoal lighter fluid.