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Maui couple contributes
to alternative fuel effort
Bush visits a Virginia plant
built using biodiesel technology
President Bush yesterday visited a plant in Virginia built by a Maui couple that converts soybeans into diesel fuel, noting "biodiesel is one of our nation's most promising alternative fuel sources."
"By developing biodiesel, you're making this country less dependent on foreign sources of oil," the president said during the visit of Virginia Biodiesel. "Americans are concerned about high prices at the pump and they're really concerned as they start making their travel plans, and I understand that."
During the visit, Bush urged Congress to encourage development of alternative fuels like biodiesel and ethanol to make the United States less dependent on foreign oil.
Robert A. King, founder of Pacific Biodiesel Inc., which helped build the Virginia plant, and his wife, Kelly, said Bush's speech was a milestone in their efforts.
"It's very cool to have that kind of attention on what you're doing for a living," Robert King said.
The Kings recently received the 2005 small business award for Maui County from the U.S. Small Business Association.
The Kings decided about nine years ago to make a living developing a biodiesel plant at the county landfill in central Maui, converting mainly cooking oil into biodiesel fuel.
The plant on Maui, which produces about 200,000 gallons of biodiesel fuel a year, gained the attention of the head of the Olympic Committee in Nagano, Japan, several years ago.
Pacific Biodiesel developed a biodiesel plant to fuel vehicles for the 1998 Winter Olympics.
The firm has also developed a plant at Sand Island on Oahu that produces 1 million gallons of biodiesel fuel a year.
Kelly King, the firm's marketing director and a former state Board of Education member, said the Virginia Biodiesel plant completed in January 2004 is its fourth project and produces 1 million gallons a year in biodiesel fuel.
She said Pacific Biodiesel plans to develop two more plants on the U.S. mainland and establish a cooking oil receiving station on the Big Island.
Recent increases in oil have made using biodiesel an increasingly attractive alternative in Hawaii and elsewhere.
She said after taxes, a gallon of biodiesel fuel sells at $2.64 a gallon on Oahu and $2.59 on Maui, compared to a gallon of petroleum diesel fuel at $2.80 and as much as $3.
She said the biodiesel industry still was not getting anything close to the support of coal and hydrogen industries in research dollars, but Bush's appearance does help to give credence to their work.
Bush urged Congress to enact energy legislation that he says addresses both supply and conservation issues in a bid to make the United States less dependent on foreign nations, particularly those in the volatile Middle East, for its energy needs.
Bush has attempted to set an August deadline for Congress to get a bill to his desk. The House has approved a plan with many elements that Bush wants, though he opposes the billions in tax breaks and subsidies to energy companies that it contains. The Senate has yet to act on alternative legislation.
Bush's plan would open an Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling as part of its attempt to address supply problems.
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