Oregonians don’t usually pump their own gas, but when Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) filled two cars with ethanol and biodiesel at the dedication ceremony of the West coast’s first retail biofuel station, located in Eugene, the politicians, professionals, farmers and environmentalists in attendance cheered wildly.
But before ceremoniously filling the tanks on Aug. 23 the senator stood with a biodiesel Volkswagen and an ethanol-capable Ford and heralded the SeQuential Biofuels station, located just north of the 30th Avenue exit on Interstate 5, as a sustainable bulwark against what he called America’s “addiction to oil.”
Biodisel, a cleaner-burning diesel fuel created by processing vegetable oil, and Ethanol, an alcohol-based fuel derived from the sugars and starches of certain biological crops have both been recently touted by the White House and major industries as sustainable alternatives to petroleum-based fuel.
Wyden said the station represented a bipartisan triumph, and noted that while the blue and red political lines often serve as stark dividers, “everyone in Oregon today is green all the way.”
The senator said his support for the project stems from President George W. Bush’s call during the 2006 State of the Union for sustainable fuel and American independence from oil nations in the Middle East. Calling the “whopper prices” at traditional gas stations a “terror tax,” Wyden said money people pay at the pump “eventually makes its way to Saudi Arabia,” where “they backdoor it to terrorist groups who want to kill Americans.”
Ian Hill, who is now managing partner of SeQuential, also addressed the crowd and said he has been dreaming of opening a retail biofuel station for more than two years.
Hill focused less on global politics and, after thanking a laundry list of supporters, said the company’s efforts embody a value system focused on building a future where children can be proud of the efforts of their ancestors.
“Our ability to affect change is unlimited,” Hill said. “Businesses don’t have to externalize costs onto society.”
In an interview, Hill explained the project’s genesis: Long before the site’s $200,000 Environmental Protection Agency-funded renewal had begun, Hill was driving from Eugene to a Phish concert in the San Francisco Bay Area when his gasoline-powered pickup truck exploded on the highway. No one was
hurt, Hill said, but he received a large settlement from his insurance company.
For the first time in his life Hill could afford the car of his choice. In his ensuing search for a vehicle he discovered the biodiesel car, a seemingly random occurrence that would consume the next two years of his life in a whirlwind of business planning and political dealmaking that ended with the creation of an environmentally sustainable fueling station.
The site where the new SeQuential station sits was previously occupied by a traditional gas station that was eventually shut down. The remaining structure seeped toxic chemicals into the soil, poisoning the groundwater, and by 2003, the land had become an industrial wasteland frequented by intravenous drug users. During the cleanup process that preceeded construction, workers unearthed more than 500 drug needles, Hill said.
The station itself – consisting of a convenience store and an outlet for local coffee and pastry shop Sweet Life Patisserie – employs several techniques to use clean energy. Soil and vegetation cover the office and bakery roof in an effort to use energy more efficiently and reduce toxins in rain runoff. The covering for the rows of fuel pumps houses an array of 244 solar panels, producing 30-50 percent of the energy needed to
operate the station, a press release states.
Of the five fuels the station offers, one ethanol-gasoline blend usable for all gas-powered vehicles and another blend for all vehicles running on diesel. The three remaining fuels power specific types of biodiesel or ethanol-fuled engines.
Caveats on the pumps warn that biodiesel can corrode engine tubing in cars manufactured before 1993 and that the 99 percent biodiesel fuel can thicken into a jelly at temperatures below 40 degrees. But while these fuels remain an important aspect of the business, Hill said the station faces a challenge
communicating to the public that cars need not have a special type of engine to come and fill their tanks
“Any vehicle on the road can fill here,” Hill said.
The station is located at the corner of McVay Highway and Bloomberg Road and will be open to the public after Sept. 2.
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