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Save the Environment. Just Which One? by Don Ward Sound Politics, October 10, 2007

The latest wonder of ersatz fuel is coming to a pump near you. If you live in Ballard at least. Propel Biofuels, a local firm specializing in retailing biodiesel directly to the consumer, opened a new filling station on Leary Way.

The punch-line is the company uses Washington grown crops to produce Washington distilled vegetable oil which is used to manufacture locally refined biodiesel that is then sold to Washington drivers. While raking in those federal subsidies...

It's all good because Americans need to wean themselves off their dependence on Canadian, Mexican, Venezuelan and domestically produced oil.

Seattleites can feel guilt-free fueling up their Volkswagon microbuses and Cummins Diesels. At least until the new California-style emissions kick in.

Since state farmers will have to devote more land to growing canola oil for biodiesel that means environmentalists will have to scrap their idea of breaching the four Lower Snake River Dams; they provide irrigation for 36,000 acres of cropland - 55 square miles - while acting as a highway for cheap, greenhouse friendly, low-emissions barge traffic to bring produce to market.

Better import more tainted wheat from China for domestic food consumption too. There's only a finite amount of arable land east of the Cascades. You either feed people with it or feed cars.

The days of water buyback programs for farmers need to be a thing of the past. Seattle commuters have to save the environment; one ton of French-fry smelling vehicle emissions at time. With the increased demand for irrigation water along the rest of the Columbia River Basin, Eastern Washington PUDs will be unable to spill extra water over the dams for salmon and steelhead stream flow mitigation.

No sacrifice is too great to stop man-made Global Warming though. Besides. Polar bears are so much more cute and cuddly than stinky fish.