Biodiesel as a fuel alternative.

I recently sent President Bush the following letter:

Mr. President:

In recent comments to the media you expressed that we need to build
more oil refineries. While doing so may be an immediate solution to
our current fuel crisis, it does not reduce our dependency in foreign
oil. We currently have the technology and the resources to use a
viable and clean fuel alternative; Biodiesel.

Biodiesel is made from vegetable oil, and it can be produced from any
vegetable. I firmly believe that building an infrastructure to support
the use and production of biodiesel is the long term solution to
replacing fossil fuels. There is even research to support that some
species of algae are made of over 50% oils that can be extracted for
biodiesel production. The benefits of biodiesel are many:
- Minimal to zero impact to the environment, biodiesel has a 1:1 ratio
of emissions from biodiesel to the CO2 required by plants to produce
oil.
- Farmers would benefit from diverse crops. Farmers could become the
new oil magnates.
- There is minimal to no cost for converting diesel vehicle fleets to
biodiesel, in fact only fleets operating in cold climates would
require any conversion.
- All transportation and services that use diesel can use biodiesel instead.
- As the infrastructure for biodiesel grows the cost of fuel would go
down, it is a truly renewable source.
- Research has shown that vehicles running on biodiesel require less
maintenance than those running on diesel fuel.
- The mileage from diesel and biodiesel engines is almost twice to
that of gasoline.

While hybrid cars present a step forward in our quest to reduce our
dependency for oil, it does not eliminate that dependency, biodiesel
will eliminate our dependency on oil.

I recently purchased a diesel automobile (Volkswagen Jetta TDI) and I
intend to use biodiesel as soon as I can find it in my area, currently
I would have to buy a 55 gallon drum from a local retailer at 2.85 per
gallon, not much cheaper than diesel but the fact that my car would
run cleaner than other vehicles is worth the cost. As I mentioned
before, the mileage is dramatically better. I live in Miami and I
drove to Key West and back on less than 11 gallons of diesel, that's
nearly 45 miles per gallon. Driving around town my mileage is around
36-40 mpg.

Mr.President I hope that your administration considers Biodiesel a top
priority in the next few years, I strongly believe that it is the
solution to our fuel woes.

Respectfully,

Anthony Camilo