Energy has been a thorn in our side for a number of years, most recently during President Carter’s term in office. The culprit has been defined as petroleum products, specifically our dependence on it for heating, transportation and industrial production. We have been told that we are rapidly running out of all fossil fuels.

That may or may not be as definitive as we are led to believe.

True, we are using up our known reserves at a rapid rate, but there are untapped sources that we are told must be untouched because it will result in environmental catastrophe – global warming.

There has been technology since the late 1800s to replace all or part of our petroleum needs with oil extracted from numerous oil-bearing plants, seeds and nuts called “biofuel.”

The first diesel engine developed by Rudolph diesel ran successfully on 100 percent processed vegetable oil. That same process, which has been greatly refined, has been in use in the United States by farmers and experimenters since the 1970s and in Europe since World War II. This “vegetable fuel” can be used in diesel engines at full strength (100 percent biofuel) or mixed with petroleum fuel at five percent, 20 percent or any other amount desired.

Presently, it is being mixed primarily at 20 percent (B20) to 80 percent diesel or heating oil in most areas of the United States.

As production increases with the construction of additional processing facilities and more land is allotted to produce the plant resources we will be able to decrease our demand for petroleum supplies. Many skeptics will say this can never be done.

The first reported commercial production of biofuel in the United States was in 1999 with a total of 500,000 gallons. By 2003 the amount had reached an annual total of 25 million gallons. I have seen no figures on 2004 production.

The United States is now approaching 500 million gallons per year with an additional 135 million gallons in 2005 and 150 million gallons production capacity scheduled to go online in the spring of 2006. Congress and the president have directed that we increase that amount to 8 billion gallons of biofuel by 2012.

At present, to my knowledge Maine has no commercial production facilities, and no farmland dedicated to growing the oil-bearing crops. Frontier Energies of South China, Maine does import the processed “vegetable oil” to mix with its diesel and heating oil, and there are a few fuel dealers along the coast that sell biodiesel for marine diesel use. Beyond that, the usage by the state of Maine in the Augusta area and vehicles of the Bangor Motor Pool there is very little being done and not much in the way of information.

We are missing an opportunity to create additional income for our farmers, the reduction of capitol spent on out-of-state fuel additive supplies, and the loss of potential jobs created by in-state facilities. This is not a “pie in the sky” adventure that will only last a few years. This will fill the gap until new technologies come along and into the future since it is a renewable source.

Our problem is the result of our refusal to open known resources of petroleum and the refineries to make them available. Dedicating this additional petroleum to mixing the B20 vegetable fuel will not result in additional damage to our environment.

There are additional benefit which needs to be addressed. The use of biofuel has proven to drastically reduce the pollution that diesel fuel spews into our air and helps to eliminate ozone- and cancer-causing particulate. If we are forced to prematurely abandon our use of petrol products we may cause drastic damage to our economy. We also need to provide inspiration to the gentlemen from Millinocket who has devised a method of extracting ethanol from waste potatoes to provide cleaner gasoline and further aid the Maine economy.

Robert T. Belmont is a resident of Bangor.