Lincoln County Students Leading the Way with Biodiesel
07/18/2008 - By Senator Jay Rockefeller
With gas prices at such excessive highs, innovative ideas for developing alternative sources of energy - and the ambition to actually make something of them - are becoming more important every day. And that's just what some young students are doing right in our own state, at Lincoln County High School.
There, agricultural students are making biodiesel from cooking oil - and eventually, they hope, from crops like soybeans and canola seed oil, and even oil from algae - to help with school transportation costs in the county. They're making it right there at the school, with all the equipment and resources on-site.
This is obviously terrific for the environment. Biodiesel emits up to 100 percent less sulfur dioxide, and 80 percent to 100 percent less carbon dioxide than traditional diesel. It reduces smoke and particulate pollution by up to 75 percent, compared to petroleum-based diesel. Biodiesel breaks down four times faster than regular diesel, and it's safer to transport and handle.
For Lincoln County, biodiesel is also going to be a huge money-saver. At full production, this plant will be able to produce 500 gallons of biodiesel a week - saving the county around $6,500 a month in school bus transportation fuel costs. For now, they're planning to fuel a single school bus for the first year, which will save the county about $32,000.
I recently had the opportunity to see these students at work at the school's official grand opening of its biodiesel center, and to fill up a school bus with the first batch of the fuel. I have to say, I was impressed with how ambitious and knowledgeable the students are. They know we're facing a serious energy situation right now - and that we're going to have to look beyond fossil fuels to other resources we have.
Lincoln County is truly leading the way - in fact, theirs is the only high school on the entire East Coast doing something like this. I'm tremendously proud of the students for being so dedicated and so excited about making biodiesel. I'm proud of the teachers - especially Ryan Saxe, head of the school's agricultural program - for leading and encouraging them. And I'm proud of their families and community for rallying around them.
They know that while this has the potential to help their county in a very big way, the effects of what they're doing can spread much, much further. This center has the potential to help make West Virginia a national hub of fuel production - not just in coal, which is enormously important, but also in bio-fuel.
If West Virginia is going to be a leader on this front, then West Virginians need to have the skills to do the job. This center will help prepare our workforce for alternative fuels production - and it could be a model for schools across our state, and across our country, on how to prepare students to work in this new, "green" industry.
I applaud what they're doing at Lincoln County High School. They decided to take things into their own hands - to use the resources they have to help their county and their state. They're doing their part to help move our country toward energy independence, and to protect our planet. This is what the future is all about, and I couldn't be more proud that these students are helping to pave the way.
Article Published by Senator Jay Rockefeller for West Virginia
