As president of FFA Fuels, I believe there are enough red flags surrounding the Tesoro-Savage oil terminal that the time has come to repurpose the site to become a showcase for renewable energy. Using the railroad network, we could be bringing in feedstock in the form of Camelina seeds from the Dakotas, rendered animal fats from Chicago stockyards, canola from Canada and the central states to be converted on the waterfront and fed into one of several types of energy processors from biodiesel and ethanol and fuel cells powered by methanizers.
City waste from Portland and Vancouver could be processed in the type of facility that allows Stockholm to process 97 percent of its waste, producing energy, wood pellets and methane. Soon, the Tesoro-Savage site would be producing electricity, biodiesel, ethanol, natural gas, and wood pellets. None of these products are toxic, and would create hundreds of jobs at the site and around it and thousands of jobs across America.
Using financing for renewable energy allows it all to be built for one-tenth of what is projected for the tar sand project; leveraging European development funds could put over $75 million on the table to complete the project, in phases, in less than three years.
We, the people, can stand resolutely in opposition or embrace the future of energy and become a showcase for renewable energy.
