Bought my '07 2500 in 9/07 when diesel out here in California was cheaper than regular gas. I drive 45,000 miles a year for work and was burning out gassers in 2 to 2.5 years. Lots of mountain driving in snow/ice/sleet/etc. Thought it was a good move, AND I thought if I could run biodiesel, I could take myself off the big oil/terror-oil teat. In the last 11 months, I've watched bio in northern California and southern Oregon stay 50 cents to a buck higher than ULSD #2, which everyone knows hasn't been cheap. I ask the biodiesel outlets why its so much higher cost. They just shrug and say the commodities that go into making bio are going up, as well. Apparently, they don't use bio to produce the beans that make the bio, or somesuch. They SAY their bio isn't coming from ruined Indonesian and Brazilian rainforests, but who knows? My point is, I think bio providers are cashing in on the "precious-ness" that Prius buyers have bought into. Prius buyers don't care they are paying a $5K to $10K premium for essentially a gas-electric Corolla than they would a Yaris or Fit or even a Chevy Aveo because it makes them *feel* so good to be saving the earth. I get that vibe out of the biodiesel providers, too. Their shrugs seem to tell me that if I really wanted to save the earth, I'd pay whatever the tariff is on bio. As a working stiff pouring ULSD into my tank ($170 to fill it up @ $5/gallon) once or twice a week, I don't know if, like the Prius-precious, I can afford to have saving the earth as my #1 priority. This stuff can be made from soybeans, obviously, 80% of which doesn't go into human feedstock. I say, remove ALL federal soybean "dont-grow-it-this-year" subsidies to farmers and tell them to get with it, get that land in production (or starve), and contribute to the national diesel supply, while driving down the cost of bio because the supply would be up. Am I missing something?

Am I missing something?A few things...
The fact that the cost of farming has increased tremendiously also.

Most smart farmers rotate crops to break disease and pest problems, they shouldn't grow soy year after year. Also soybeans fix nitrogen from the air to the soil. Nitrogen is one of the most important crop nutrients, made from natural gas the cost has skyrocketed. The farmer is money (nitrogen) ahead to rotate from beans to a crop that requires nitrogen.

And this is what irks me, most of the bio produced in the US is being exported to Europe increasing demand which in turn increases prices.

it doesn't help that our tax dollars paying a $1/gallon biodiesel subsidy has turned into 'splash and dash'.


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,366601,00.html

Most of the CRP land is dry grass lands used for grazing. So some of it could be used for production of energy type crops, but not much. The real kicker is this http://www.iowafarmertoday.com/articles/2008/07/17/top_stories/03crplawsuit.txt
Remember this is private land!

Soybeans is a major feedstock of Bio in the US. Soybeans are around 20% by weight oil. 1 bu is around 40 lbs. So ea bu yields 8 lbs of oil which equals about a gallon of soy oil. Then the soy oil has to be processed beyond that. I haven't looked lately but Soybeans are going for $8/bu give or take. Even when soybeans were "cheap", a bushel would go for $4.50/bu. So you can see the economics of it do not work out with out any gov. help, and any bio sold at the same price of regular diesel is sold at a loss, when not subsidized.

it doesn't help that our tax dollars paying a $1/gallon biodiesel subsidy has turned into 'splash and dash'.


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,366601,00.html

I like how some reporters do research.


Biodiesel is produced abroad using South American sugar cane or Asian palm oil

Palm oil yes, but Sugar to Bio, I would like to see that trick. Sugar makes ethanol, but not Bio (well the ethanol can be used instead of methanol I guess).

This is a major issue that needs to be cleaned up. That bio standard was put in place to promote our biofuels industry, not subsidized Europe's fuel cost.

Check this out for fuel production. I want to start buying land! and getting investors.

http://www.valcent.net/i/misc/Vertigro/index.html

Hybrid sunflowers, they have 70% oil content.

Hybrid sunflowers, they have 70% oil content.
Yup I know they are used too, but I don't know the numbers for sunflowers off the top of my head. [redface]

The algea production shows some real promise for long term economical production of bio, but it needs to be proven economically on a large scale.