Trucking Company Vehicles To Pollute Less in Minnesota

In Minnesota on Friday, May 1, 2009 the state moved to the B-5 bio diesel mandate. The Minnesota Commissioner of Agriculture Gene Hugoson told reporters at a news conference marking the B-5 milestone, "For state and national energy policy it is extremely important we move to less dependence on imported foreign oil." The B-5 bio diesel has a 5% soy additive content. That 5% is an increase from the former B-2 mandate where diesel fuel had a 2% additive content.  The trucking industry uses a substantial amount of diesel fuel so the mandate is a step toward a greener industry.

For clean air advocates this new mandate is definitely a breath of fresh air. In fact this mandate should provide enough of a reduction in pollution to create cleaner air. According to Kelly Marczak of the American Lung Association of Minnesota the higher the B-5 mandate for bio fuels could remove lung irritants and additional quantities of carcinogens from the air. Kelly was quoted saying "This action will prevent 139 tons of particulate pollution and 330,000 tons of life cycle carbon dioxide emissions from entering our air each year."

This is a remarkable reduction, and to put it into a real world example Kelly Marczak of the American Lung Association of Minnesota said that the reduction would amount to removing 55,000 passenger cars from roads, or planting 56,000 acres of pine tree forest.

This information is an excerpt of a great article written by John Croman of KARE 11 news in Minnesota. The original article also included interviews with the Minnesota trucking industry about their B-5 Bio diesel mandate. Articles like this are a great story for the future. Those looking for truck driving jobs or considering truck driving schools can believe firmly that the industry is taking steps toward an overall greener transportation industry. The original article can be found at: http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=665562&catid=2

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