The Geography of Biodiesel
by John Laumer, Philadelphia 
on 05. 1.06
Rust Belt, Corn Belt, Biodiesel Belt: one blends into the next if you're touring in a biodiesel powered vehicle across the north-eastern quadrant of the US. There are enough stations in the "belt," as approximated in the grapic, that you won't find yourself without biodiesel unless you enter one of the "non-renewable" zones like Upstate New York. See this biodiesel retail sales locator map for a broader picture of what we're talking about, courtesy of the National Biodiesel Board. Practically speaking, the risk of totally running out of fuel is low because you can always fill up with straight petro-diesel or a blend, as shown on this locator map. For everyday driving, large clusters of biodiesel outlets in Minnesota, Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana represent a good and growing infrastructure. In states such as Vermont, Maryland, Michigan, and Virginia, the choices are fewer, but stations are still common enough that, with a little planning, a road trip could likely remain renewably fueled. With the online maps in these two links you can plan your journey around actual hours of pump operation or avoid wasting fuel just to get a fill up, which would be rather "Un-TreeHugger" as we say.
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This map is not very useful because it shows you biodiesel retailers selling any concentration. Click on IL and you'll find that most retailers are selling B2 (2% biodiesel, 98% petro diesel) or B11. There is only one place selling B100.
In other states such as WA and OR you'll find a much smaller number of retailers, but a higher number of retailers who are selling B99 or B100.
It is still tricky to drive across the country on a high blend of biodiesel unless you carry excess fuel yourself.
Source: http://www.nrdc.org/air/transportation/biofuels.asp
American farmers and refiners are already producing billions of gallons of ethanol from corn. But to make enough biofuels to slash our oil use, the industry will need to evolve to making cellulosic biofuels -- fuels made from whole plants, not just the corn kernel. To make this next leap, we need to put the right national policies in place. The federal government should:
Invest in a package of research, development and demonstration. Producing a cheap and reliable alternative to oil will be lucrative business, but the industry alone will take too long to develop the new technologies needed. The government can spur the development along -- and ensure that biofuels are affordable for American consumers -- by investing about $1.1 billion between 2006 and 2015 in biofuels development.
Offer incentives for deploying the first billion gallons of cellulosic biofuels. With oil prices skyrocketing and greenhouse gas emissions piling up, we need to shift to biofuels today, not in the distant future. To make sure that at least 1 billion gallons of cellulosic biofuels are produced by 2015, the government should offer $1 billion in incentives to production facilities.
Give consumers a meaningful choice at the pump. Today, drivers have a choice between oil and oil when they wheel up to the gas pump. To change that -- to provide a choice between oil and biofuels -- will take robust markets and infrastructure. And to that end the government should require that all vehicles sold by 2015 be able to use both traditional fuels and biofuels and that at least one-quarter of gasoline stations have at least one pump dedicated selling to biofuels.