STC turns yellow buses green

Student Transportation Of Canada (STC) is part of the fourth-largest provider of school bus transportation services in North America. Its buses will soon run on biodiesel made from soybean, corn and canola oils. Unlike in Europe, where bioethanol tends to be the biofuel of choice, biodiesel is by far North America's fastest growing alternative to diesel fuel, producing cleaner emissions and cost savings.

"At STC, we all share a common concern for our children's health and the environment," says Chris Harwood, senior vice president of operations for STC, sounding a bit schmaltzy. "Realising a 40 per cent reduction in greenhouse gases and reducing tailpipe emissions are our primary objectives for the conversion. The added bonus for the company, and our customers, is that cleaner biodiesel fuels also cost less and reduce wear-and-tear on our engines further reducing maintenance costs."

Dilemma
So everyone’s a winner, then. Or at least we would be, if it wasn’t for the fact that it is precisely this kind of biodiesel – produced from food crops – that has caused an international backlash against biofuels. Although often the criticism is misinformed, the industry is still recovering from it.

It encapsulates the dilemma faced by all stakeholders in the biofuels debate: do we plough on with first generation biofuels, despite concerns about their true well-to-wheel sustainability and their impact on food crops and prices, or do we focus on second generation biofuels from truly sustainable, non-fuel sources? If the answer is the latter, then what do we do in the meantime?

Your views are welcome – just click on the comments link below.

Related articles

• FAO tool combines biofuels production with food security
• EuropaBio backs proposals for sustainability criteria
• Backlash against biofuels continues (discussion)