Farmers and Agricultural Professionals
Biodiesel Environmental (and Other) Benefits
Air Quality
• Reduces emissions of harmful air pollutants such as asthma-causing fine particles, greenhouse gases, and acid rain forming sulfur dioxides.
• Reduces carbon dioxide emissions.
Waste Minimization
• When biodiesel is created from byproducts, such as waste cooking oil, for example, waste is diverted from municipal solid waste landfills and sewer systems.
Environmentally Friendly
• Biodiesel is non-toxic, renewable and biodegradable.
Energy
• Biodiesel is a renewable resource that can be produced domestically from animal fat, vegetable oil or used cooking oil. This decreases the country’s dependence on imported foreign oil.
• The Department of Energy analyzed the full biodiesel life-cycle and found that for every unit of fossil fuel used to produce biodiesel, 3.2 units of energy were gained. By contrast, petroleum diesel’s life cycle yields only 0.83 units of fuel product energy.
Economics
• The IRS runs a tax credit program with a subsidy of 50 cents to $1 per gallon of biodiesel produced. This credit ends 12/31/08 unless otherwise extended. For more information, visit
www.biodiesel.org/news/taxincentive.
• The Department of Agriculture and the Congressional Budget Office have stated that biodiesel is the most economical alternative fuel for meeting the Energy Policy Act (EPAct) requirements.
