Mayor Bob Foster flew down the beach from the captain’s chair of a John Deere 7630 tractor, happy as a clam for two reasons:
1. He was living every little boy’s dream.
2. He was driving the future of environmentally-friendly city vehicles.
Or that’s what the City of Long Beach hopes, at least. Ten biodiesel beach vehicles were unveiled in a demonstration yesterday, part of a 3-6 month expirement to see whether or not the tractors and trucks meet the City’s two goals of using cleaner, more efficient fuel and extending the diesel supply. If the experiment is deemed a success, it could lead to an expansion of as many as 250 city vehicles that would run on efficient biodiesel.
“This is one more step in our policy to be a sustainable city,” Mayor Foster said after jumping down from the cockpit.
He made sure to extend credit to City Councilmember Bonnie Lowenthal, who originally brought up the idea of integrating biodiesel vehicles into the city fleet when she began driving around the city in a modified VW Bug last January. Lowenthal cited increased business at the Port of Long Beach and clogging of the 710 Freeway as reasons that the city must take steps to reduce its emissions, thereby improving air quality. Hopefully.
“We need to make sure that there is a dramatic reduction [in emissions due to using the new beach vehicles], so we can utilize this in the future,” she said. “I would also like everyone to know that we are not killing the rainforests in South America to get this fuel, because it is only a 20% blend.”
The exact blend, known as B20, is a very efficient fuel that most of the targeted vehicles are already equipped to run on anyway. In fact, the John Deere tractors remain under original warranty when run on biodiesel, a rarity.
Lowenthal – who politely refused to pilot the tractor which has tires that stand taller than she does – is optimistic that the experiment will produce encouraging results that could potentially move the city closer to implementing those 250+ efficient vehicles.
Mayor Foster is optimistic that the Deere tractor could likely do a wheelie if the heavy trailer was removed.
“It causes too much drag,” he said.
By Ryan ZumMallen, Managing Editor
The biodiesel John Deere tractor and trailer (Mayor Foster’s nemesis), which is used to sift through large amounts of sand and deposit clean sand on the beach. Photo by Ryan ZumMallen
Mayor Foster and Councilmember Bonnie Lowenthal, who proposed the biodiesel idea months ago. Photo by Ed Kamlan
Mayor Foster, driving the future of Long Beach sustainability. Literally. Photo by Ed Kamlan
A few other members of the biodiesel fleet. Photo by Ryan ZumMallen