A swift blog to serve as an introduction. I started this because of my new part-time job as a sales representative for Fleet Biodiesel (see links). I have never done sales in my life, excepting a brief stint in retail for a vintage clothing company called "Eye Candy". During the short time I was employed there, my boss took peyote regularly, chained a bed to the ceiling of the shop, and, when a customer was threatening violent revenge for an unknown slight, locked me in with said customer to "Wait for the police!"

Sales in general were not appealing to me after that.

I overcame my deeply embedded fear when I joined Fleet Biodiesel, a company with local offices and international reach, because I believe very strongly in the necessity of diminishing our reliance on foreign oil...and on petroleum in general. I have been using Biodiesel from Rising Phoenix Organics (see links) in a pre-owned '04 VW Jetta since the fall of 2007, while I was working at the Oregon Shakespere Festival. My reasons are environmental as well, although it has been pointed out to me that while Biodiesel has net fewer emissions than regular Diesel #2, it's fluorocarbon output is slightly higher.

It saddens me that Biodiesel has gotten a somewhat bad rap in this country, firstly because it's a strange new world of technology (despite the fact that Rudolph Diesel powered the first engine bearing his name on peanut oil at the 1900 World's Fair in Paris), and secondly because it can become corrupted and cause engine problems; it degrades far more easily than regular petrol. Because of the trouble bad Bio has caused, and because many don't see the production of the oils necessary as viable, it has been relegated to a shady purgatory while fuel opportunists look for that "silver bullet" that will turn the world as easily as petrol has done for the last century.

But I feel strongly that the silver bullet does Not exist. I think it is a hubristic tendency to look for the product that will outsell, outperform, and outrank everything else on the market. In this day and age, there may be more than one good solution.

I talk about Biodiesel and Biodiesel Quality Assurance, because I believe together they are one of those 'good solutions.' Please feel free to comment harshly or gently. I may drop info about Fleet Biodiesel's products from time to time, in an appropriate context, but that will be the extent of my sales pitching here. My hope is to open a community dialogue about Biodiesel in general. Let's talk about this and other fuel alternatives...or just talk.

--NellamityJane