Official Pacific Biodiesel, Inc. position on Imported Palm Oil
For 15 years Pacific Biodiesel has been making renewable biodiesel from locally sourced oils, and selling the fuel back to our community. Whether the source is used cooking oil in Hawaii, canola oil grown in Oregon, or cottonseed oil from Texas, where “Cotton is King”, our goal is always to find sources of oil close to our production plants. Global trade models do not fit our vision of the future for biodiesel.
Pacific Biodiesel has not imported any foreign oil for biodiesel production, and will continue with this policy.
We do not believe importing soybean oil from South America or palm oil from Southeast Asia solves the problem of America’s dependence on imported energy. In many cases, the global environmental impact is negative. In some cases, such as new plantations in Borneo, the environmental impact is devastating. Without a positive environmental or energy security benefit, these feedstocks do not warrant our support.
Pacific Biodiesel has not exported any biodiesel, and will continue with this policy.
We did not export biodiesel to Europe as was the practice in the U.S. a few years back. The US government spent $1.2 billion on tax credits for biodiesel export out of the US. The World Trade Organization agreed with European countries that this practice was unfair and imposed a tariff on American biodiesel. We agree with the WTO decision as U.S. biodiesel production has not exceeded our nation’s diesel fuel consumption and we will likely never produce more than we can use.
Truly sustainable biodiesel is about the triple bottom line for the community: economic benefit, environmental protection and energy security. When we understand that all sustainability is local, we can begin to see that success is about community and the future belongs to all of us.