On the last day of the month of September, a biodiesel webinar was hosted by National Biodiesel Board (NBB) in displaying the Bio-heat program in New York. NBB moderated the event through its Sustainability Director, Don Scott, featuring some presentations by others such as James Gennaro, a member of the NY City Council. Gennaro chairs the Environmental Protection council’s committee. Another presentation was by the Deputy Secretary, Peter Iwanowicz, New York State for Environment.

New York City is the United State’s largest biodiesel municipal user and in the recent past has implemented that each home-heating oil must have 2% biodiesel. Gennaro said in the webinar that the City of New York burns around a billion heating oil gallons each year, and since that is a big utilization of heating oil, the move was a positive direction towards cleaning the City’s air. He also noted that New York City was also cleaning its air through other ways.

Gennaro also stressed that the Bioheat interest stemmed in a way from a successful move of use in the state’s biodiesel fleets. The State has had a good record of biodiesel usage in its heavy-duty type of fleets and has so far worked well. The benefit that Gennaro would like to see in the City’s heating oil systems.

The crafting of the legislation of bio-heat has been taking place for a couple of years now. The bill that was put up would bring into the heating oil system a 2% mandate.

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