USDA Forest Service, Wyoming

In the forests of Wyoming, rangers and other workers depend on their vehicles to run like clockwork.

Robin J. Brooks is a district fleet manager for the USDA Forest Service in Wyoming, where about 55 vehicles run on 20 percent biodiesel (B20) year-round.

"We've had no problems," he said.  "No lost power, no filter plugging, no problem with the tank delivery system.  We had heard stories that when we first switched over to biodiesel, all of our filters would be plugged and we'd have to change them all out right away, but we didn't experience any of that."

Vehicle dependability becomes even more important during winter, when temperatures can hover at 45 degrees below zero for weeks at a time.

"During cold weather, we've always used Number 1 diesel instead of Number 2, and we just blend the biodiesel into the Number 1," Brooks said.  "We've got down to 46 degrees below zero, and we didn't have any problems.  We had one bulldozer that we ran on B100 just to see what would happen, and even it didn't have any problems.