Confirmation: Biodiesel Not to Blame in Minnesota
A new report confirms that biodiesel was not to blame for stalling school buses in Minnesota last week.
When the temperatures in the Minneapolis area dropped to -20 to -30 degrees F, some students got an extra day off from school when a handful of buses wouldn’t run. Naysayers immediately blamed biodiesel, but state officials suspected the green fuel was getting a bum rap (see my post from January 17). Now, a study shows the bio part of biodiesel had nothing to do with the problem.
This National Biodiesel Board release has details:
“The problems with school buses in Minnesota had nothing to do with biodiesel,” said Bill Walsh, Communications Director for the Minnesota Department of Commerce. “An independent investigation confirmed what we believed last week – when it gets to 20 degrees below zero in the Midwest, diesel engines have trouble operating unless they are properly maintained – whether or not they are using a biodiesel blend.”
The report completed Friday confirms that components of diesel – not biodiesel – caused school buses in Bloomington, MN to malfunction last week.
“Nothing is more important than getting kids to school safely, which is why we worked proactively to find out exactly what troubled the buses in Bloomington,” said Ed Hegland, National Biodiesel Board Chairman.
The report issued Friday by Meg Corp. and paid for by the distributor that supplied the fuel, Yokum Oil, analyzed filters from the buses that broke down. The buses were using B2, which is 98 percent petroleum diesel blended with 2 percent biodiesel. Minnesota has a statewide B2 mandate in effect. “We found that whatever was plugging the filters was not biodiesel, but a substance found in petroleum,” the report concludes.
Plenty of us from cold weather states recognized that any diesel would have trouble in that kind of weather. It’s good to know that science proves our instincts right.
8 Comments »
Confirmation: Biodiesel Not to Blame in Minnesota
[...] Domestic Fuel [...]
Dave Andersen
From the story: “The report issued Friday by Meg Corp. and paid for by the distributor that supplied the fuel, Yokum Oil…”
So, if Halliburton investigated Halliburton, and found that Halliburton did nothing wrong, should it be reported as fact?
Perhaps an independent investigator is called for.
Glenn Beck and other BioFools | Minneapolis Metblogs
[...] reports that biodiesel caused the mechanical problems with a few, older buses stored outdoors are not true. Today I see Fox News “personality” Glenn Beck continues to spin out of control with [...]
Bob Moffitt
Thanks for spreading the news, John.
Even this morning, after a number of sources have gotten the details of what happened to a few older buses in one school district, a national Fox News host is still blaming the biodiesel!
Robert Pritchett
1) Get the right bus picture for the troublesome Daimler Truck Thomas Built MVP-EF.
http://www.thomasbus.com/bus-models/type-d/
2) These particular buses do not use heated filters, like their competitors use.
http://www.usrecallnews.com/2008/12/nhtsa-2665.html
3) Read the report.
4) We added the correct information in our Biodiesel section on PESWIki.
http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:Biodiesel
John Davis
Usually I don’t like to comment because I like to give you guys your say, since I’ve had mine. But I did want to make just a couple of comments on this post.
Robert,
The picture I used was just a generic bus picture that I had used some time back… not necessarily representative of the ones that actually broke down. Thanks for your offer of the picture of the correct bus, but since it’s not in the public domain, and I could be talking bad about that model without the company’s permission, it didn’t seem right to use it. Erring on the side of caution, I removed the picture completely.
Dave Andersen,
You make a good point about the company with a vested interest finding it was not the biodiesel’s fault. But I think a lot of the critics are ignoring the fact that it was -20 to -30 degrees F over the ENTIRE state! If it was biodiesel’s fault, why did just this one district have trouble when EVERYONE was using it on that day? In addition, growing up in Northwest Iowa, I can recall a couple of days when school got canceled because of extreme cold weather. It gelled the petroleum diesel (no biodiesel back then).
Anyway, you make a good point about having someone independent investigate. I’d like to hear what they have to say.
John
Sam
Don’t believe a thing that it wasn’t the fault of biodiesel. As a mechanic for one of the top ten cities in Minnesota I have to run 20% bio. This page isn’t long enought to tell you the problems I have and the BS I have to listen to by the people trying to promote it. The transport drivers can’t even get it to drain out of their tankers.
John Davis
Sam,
Once again… breaking my own rule here… but I have a couple of questions, and since you’re a mechanic, maybe you can answer it. I understand that 20 percent might have more problems in cold weather. But the mandate is just 2 percent. Wouldn’t that be different (as far as gelling goes)? And why did just this one district have trouble? Aren’t all Minnesota school buses running the 2 percent? If biodiesel was really the problem, wouldn’t ALL districts have had trouble?
John
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