HOUSTON—Casey Ellison’s truck looks, runs and smells like any other diesel-powered pickup on the road. But it’s not like every other truck – it runs on pure biodiesel fuel. "It smells a lot better. It’s a cleaner-burning fuel. Gas mileage is about the same, sometimes better, because it runs better in the engine. Never done anything to this truck," Ellison said. Ellison said he’s driven his truck over 100,000 miles on biodiesel, which means he’s traveled over 100,000 miles without using a single drop of foreign oil in his tank. "It’s not that much effort to get in and fill up. You might have to plan ahead a little bit," he said. With a cost that’s comparable to petroleum-based diesel, you’d think business would be booming at Houston Biodiesel. Think again. "The biodiesel industry is really struggling. It’s very difficult for the green industry to compete with big oil. Oil, in my opinion, is too cheap," Chris Powers of Houston Biodiesel said. The biodiesel industry is struggling on scales small and large. Green Earth Fuels, a company in the Houston Ship Channel that’s capable of producing 90 million gallons of biodiesel a year to be blended at various percentages with petroleum-based diesel, is one of the larger facilities in the country. "Here at Green Earth, we’re certainly operating at very low percentages. Some aren’t operating at all, and that’s an increasing situation, unfortunately. The longer we go without this credit, the harder it is for companies to survive," Martin Beirne III of Green Earth Fuels said. The credit he mentioned is a federal tax credit Congress failed to renew at the beginning of the year. It used to provide the makers of biodiesel a dollar for every gallon they produced. "We still need that assistance. And without it, we’re at risk," Beirne said. Adding to the risk is an import-killing tariff imposed on biodiesel by the European Union. Until last year, the EU was where 80 to 95 percent of the biodiesel produced in the U.S. was being sent. Texas is by far the nation’s largest producer of biodiesel, with some 30 plants capable of producing nearly 700 million gallons a year. But much of that capacity sits idle. The industry as a whole is operating at only 15 percent of its capacity. "We are hanging on. That’s true. Our industry has come to a virtual standstill," Jesse Hewitt, President of the Biodiesel Coalition of Texas, said. He said there’s also another factor involved in the equation, and it also involves Congress. "I think what hurt most of all is that Congress passed a renewable standard mandate for refiners to use a minimum amount of biodiesel. That was supposed to go into effect in 2009, and here it is 2010 and it still is not in effect," Hewitt said. To Hewitt, biodiesel just makes sense. "Here’s a fuel that we can match with petroleum. It can be made from virtually any fat or oil, and we can turn it into a diesel fuel that can be used in any diesel engine anywhere," Hewitt said. Supporters of the industry say the government is sending mixed messages to consumers, urging them to go green but not supplying the green to back it. Meanwhile, the biodiesel industry hangs in the balance.
