Linda Wood lives near the refinery. She wasn't home at the time of the explosion. When she heard what happened, she rushed home to find her front door open, all the windows blown out and dishes on the floor. There was also some damage to the foundation of the home.

She said if she had been inside the house during the blast, she would have been hurt. A city inspector is going through the home to see if it needs to be condemned.

Another house in the area had its garage door blown off.

Full article here. Tomorrow's Yokayo general staff meeting is going to cover safety quite a bit. I like to believe that stuff like this could never happen at Yokayo, but it sure is a vivid reminder of the dangers of chemical plants. The fuel pipeline that exploded was carrying hydrogen and diesel.

First thing, found out that Measure A had been defeated. It was an initiative that never should have been on the ballot, and it would have allowed a large, out-of-state development company to bypass both county and local regulatory procedures in getting a large industrial site in Ukiah re-zoned into mixed use so they could either a) sell it to whomever (along with the freedom from regulation), or b) build a mega-mall. The precedent it would have set was scary. For more info, check out the No on A website. I had been seriously wondering how the heck I'd be able to enjoy Ukiah in the future if the mega-mall happened, and how we would preclude things like offshore oil drilling if the anti-regulations precedent was set, so this resulted in a big sigh of relief for me.

Then Sunny and I went to town early because I thought I had a meeting. Nope. It did set up a nice little breakfast date though, so that was nice.

Then we found out that Nookat, the veteran company mascot and chair warmer, seen below, was missing. As of now, she still is. This is very sad, as she is a good friend and the only company for Sunny over at the Perry Street office. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Nookat is okay, and that she may return.

Then I got a call that Air Quality was at the plant. No big deal, but it was kind of weird to go straight from worrying about Nookat to discussions with regulators.

All of this before 9:30 am. I could use a nice boring day now.



10:13 am HAPPY UPDATE: Nookat back!!! Collective weight lifted!!

Carl (biodiesel molecule, painstaking crafted to represent elements properly by color and size) and friend of Yokayo Sean Re (Che Guevara)


Virginia (Ugly Betty) and Sunny (Peak Bagger, i.e. one who "bags" mountain peaks; each bag had information on a peak Sunny had bagged, and her hiking outfit included fake cuts, dirt, and a shirt that said "I made it to the top)


Biodiesel molecule and Che Guevara again, joined by yours truly (Sabertooth, from X-Men; you can't see my trenchcoat and dog tags)


Louisa (swine flu) and Sandy (green Sandman sleepytime dude)

Note to Carl, who threw this party: click here.

We hit a huge benchmark on Saturday.

At the end of September, my dad challenged our staff at a general meeting to hit biodiesel production batch capacity (1300 gallons) with every batch, every day, for the entire 31 days of October. We'd never done anything close to that before, missing a couple days here and there, and always having some "short" days.

Logistically, we were tested at every step of the way, with equipment malfunctions, serious supply issues on methanol and vegetable oil, and numerous truck breakdowns (including the new pumper's clutch issue- argh, but thank you to Erickson Tank for helping out with the cost on that one!). It was a rough month with a lot of overtime, but we did it!

We're actually well into our 2nd month "at capacity", as we haven't missed a 1300-gal batch since September 13th.

IT'S ON!

p.s. - Sunny also kicked butt by moving 32,596 gallons into customers tanks. I need to double-check, but I think that may be a record.

The guy gets it on health care. Speaking about our right to what "every industrialized democracy in the world has":

"We compromised on single payer by backing a public option, and now we are being asked to compromise the public option with negotiated rates. In conference, we will likely be asked to compromise negotiated rates with a trigger.  In each and every step of the health care debate, the insurance companies have won. If they get hundreds of billions of dollars in new taxpayer subsidies, they get to raise their premiums, and increase their co pays and deductibles, while the public is forced to pay for private insurance, then the insurance companies win big.

If this is the best we can do, then it is time to ask ourselves whether the two-party system is truly capable of representing the American people or whether the system has been so compromised by special interests that we can’t even protect the health of our own people. This is a moment of truth for the Democratic Party.  Will we stand for the people or the insurance companies?"

Our natural gas-fired storage-type hot water heater is leaking pretty bad. Sunny and I just discovered it, but it demands attention. We've both wanted to go "tankless" for a long time, but what about going one further than that...



That's the oil-fired "Oil Miser" tankless water heater from Toyotomi. Its efficiency of 88%, low fuel consumption of 1.1 gal/hr, and ability to run on diesel fuel all appeal to me and Sunny, so we're talking with the local heating company about getting one of these installed. Running it on B95 biodiesel might be a challenge, but if someone's gotta be in the trenches, it might as well be us.

More as this develops...

Last year, we were featured in Exploring Sustainable Biodiesel, published by Schiffer Books. Click here to read the entire excerpt.

So I'm back at work this week, and I'm also back to being able to update the company website again (technical difficulties were in place for a while). First order of business, here's the radio interview I did the other day:

Click me

(It's a 1 hr show, and I don't enter the conversation until the second half hour. File is approximately 10 MB mp3)

The company's doing alright, but I've been out with the flu, and we've been short-staffed because Sunny's visiting family. Our shareholders meeting is coming up on Saturday, and I've got to get myself healthy!

Last night, I was scheduled to be on KMUD's environmental show. I cancelled due to the flu, but then managed to be on the line for half the show. I should be able to put up a link for that mp3 file soon.

Those of you who follow my posts know that health insurance is a very personal topic for me, at home as well as at work (where we don't yet have a health plan, despite years of research on the issue, and where Sunny and I count ourselves among the uninsured).

Check out this interesting new take over at Daily Kos.

A few months ago I passed on the information from editor Frankie Abralind that biodieselSMARTER would be showing up at  stores. At the time, I called the local store, and they hadn't yet heard of the publication. Well, today I was getting the Golf's tires rotated at the place next door, so I went in to and checked out the magazine rack. Lo and behold:

Lyle does a really good job over at his blog, with this gem amid others:

"Once a local Pittsboro merchant came out with a “Buy Local” t-shirt.  On the front was a pro-Pittsboro message, and on the back was a list of local businesses from which people could procure products and services.  I believe Piedmont Biofuels was on the list.  I don’t think we paid to be there, but we were on the shirt just the same.  This t-shirt was not my project.

I first encountered it at Chatham Marketplace, where the shirt’s creator approached me with pride to show me the new “Buy Local” t-shirt in town.  I don’t actually wear t-shirts, but I read his with interest.

And I looked at the label.  Made in Honduras.

I handed the shirt back to him and suggested that there is a sustainable t-shirt maker just across the county line in Burlington called T.S. Designs.

And he immediately balked.  “Too expensive, ” was his claim.

I shrugged.  I didn’t buy his “Buy Local” t-shirt from Honduras, and he eventually vanished from our local economy."

My goodness. First off, let me say that when I call this a "pile", well, I mean it in the most generous way possible. Like, a compost pile. At Yokayo, we appreciate the fertilizing effect of such effusive praise. The fruits of our labor need this kind of thing to keep blooming, so thank you, Lyle, cultivator of goodwill in the thing-that-can't-quite-be-called-the-biodiesel-industry-that-both-our-organizations-belong-to (TTCQBCTBITBOOBT, or BOOB for short).

Now that I've got the appreciation out of the way, I have to admit- there is something to this battle for idealist domination going on between Piedmont and Yokayo. Thanks to the stale thinking and criminally stupid policies of much of the dwindling biodiesel industry, all Piedmont and Yokayo have got is the BOOB. Leif needs help with the switch from chicken fat to restaurant oil? Go to the BOOB. I need to find out a little more about that cavitation thing? BOOB. It's not really competition, obviously (ah, the beauty of being far away from each other and locally-focused). In the effort to nurture each other's development, we've shared a lot over the years: a fuel user agreement, help from Girl Mark, grease collection tips, and even living quarters and lunch.

There are also a few things about each of us that tend to drive each other mad. Piedmont has a collective structure and a built-in community that we long for deeply in these parts. We FEEL those things, but we don't yet embody them the same way Piedmont does. They've got a farm, for chrissakes! Where we place ads and hire people, Piedmont engages, indoctrinates, and absorbs its followers. On the strength of the culture they've created, they develop a lot from the inside that, until recently, we haven't had the expertise for (yes Lyle, we have to keep up with Piedmont as well!). I admire their ability to procure excellence, and feel ridiculously lucky that we haven't lost either Cesar the Organizer or Sandy the Socialist to the society that is Piedmont.

On the other hand, Yokayo's reliance on capitalism has made us strong in ways that Piedmont appears to struggle with at times. While I could easily take issue with Lyle's proclamation that "Yokayo has made a little money over the course of history," (actually, I secretly yearn to write a book called "The Myth of Making Money") our business structure, unique (and home-made) market and devoted base of shareholders have enabled financing, purchases, and general progress where grants and subsidies would fail. Our early commitment to being a company that would survive if all the subsidies disappeared has proven to be a valuable thing, and has focused our attention in the right places. I guess this is one place where Piedmont may be playing catch up, and I, for one, am happy to see that they finally got themselves a real truck!

The BOOB is a difficult thing to navigate, and we who attempt it are all pioneers (read as: "gluttons for punishment"). As the socialist tendencies of the Piedmont model give way toward more capitalism, and the capitalist tendencies at Yokayo veer toward a more social ideal, it appears that the best case scenario is to meet in the middle...

...which, in a few short months, will place us in Texas. Yahoo!

So much for France being super progressive! I guess this is old news, but I heard about it for the first time on the radio this morning:

Instead, the CRE ruled that Voltalis should pay the power companies, finding, "its service would not be possible without the producer maintaining production.”

Say what?

Clutch problems on its first day out on the road. What the heck, man?

It will be even more Christmassy when we put the required candy cane metallic reflector tape down the sides. Thing is, everyone seems to like the red cab, so my dad and Barry may not need to paint it white after all. We'll see.

Bottom line: Can hold 3400 gallons, and purrs like a kitten.

Seeing as a lack of health benefits is a constant topic at Yokayo, and frankly, the fear of illness/injury is a constant topic in my uninsured life, I felt the need to post what I feel is the most eloquent 4 1/2 minutes on the subject:

Diesels in CA will have to pass smog starting in January 2010. Here's the discussion.

The Trident Iceni. Built for biodiesel. 550bhp (brake horsepower) and 950lb/ft of torque. 0-60mph in 3.7 sec, and tops out at over 200 mph. Over 70 miles per gallon. £75,000.