April 20, 2007
Sims announces next giant step toward energy independence
Watch a video from the news conference 
Video transcript
Narrator says:
Earth Day Expo in King County, a chance to learn more about best protect and save our environment, and prepare for the impacts of global warming.
King County Executive Ron Sims highlighted the earth day effort by announcing a groundbreaking new energy and transportation partnership that supports Washington markets for biodiesel, a sustainable fuel that emits less greenhouse gases than regular diesel fuel. Helping to spur those markets, Sims announced that King County Metro Transit has made a commitment to purchase 2 million gallons of Washington-grown biodiesel made from canola oil.
The county is supplying nutrient-rich biosolids produced by its Wastewater Treatment Division to be used as fertilizer and soil amendments to grow canola. The canola seeds are pressed into canola oil and the oil then processed into biodiesel fuel.
The biodiesel fuel will then be used by King County Metro Transit buses and other county vehicles that can run on biodiesel.
King County Executive Ron Sims says:
Now we have tipped the balance again including new markets for biodiesel. Today I am pleased to announce we are taking our commitment to fight global warming one step further. A step I hope will produce a new relationship between eastern Washington farmers and Western Washington biodiesel refineries in reducing greenhouse gas emmisssions and our reliance on foreign oil. Today we are fulfilling the vision that we started with metro when we started using alternative fuels. For the first time this association has achieved the ultimate recycling goal, closing the loop between the production of biosolids and biodiesel. In the coming weeks Metro will see its first shipment of biodiesel produced from canola seed in Sunnyside, in Yakima county. In all Metro will secure two million gallons of home grown canola oil, enough to meet almost all of its biofuel needs for one year.
Narrator says:
More than three quarters of Metro Transit's fleet of buses now runs on a mix of 20 percent biodiesel and ultra low sulfur diesel fuel, making it one of the greenest bus fleets in the nation. And Metro is the state's largest commercial biodiesel consumer.
The biosolids to biodiesel agreement has the support of environmental organizations who see it as a step in the right direction to sustainable living.
Shannon Harps Sierra Club says:
Such a groundbreaking partnership that turns our solid waste into two million gallons of biodiesel that power metro buses. This extraordinarily efficient use of waste to produce something of use is a closed loop system and is exactly the kind of cutting edge innovation that will help us find solutions to global warming.
Narrator says:
Metro's use of biodiesel is expected to remove some 22-thousand metric tons of carbon dioxide from our air in the coming year, that's equivalent to removing approximately two thousand 800 cars vehicles from King County roadways.
Related information
- Sims announces next giant step toward energy independence
- Canola fact sheet (PDF)
- Metro buses to switch to state-grown canola-seed fuel, Seattle Times