It looks as if the government is yet again serving the interests of big corporations instead of serving the public that elected them.
This particular case comes from another local biodiesel producer that also self-collects waste vegetable oil like we do. The rendering industry in Virginia lead the charge to change the law that imposes a layer of regulation that adds significant compliance costs to small collectors. The requirements are significant, and burdensome. See http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?101+ful+CHAP0868+pdf to read the actual law.
The buzz is that this same group has hired a firm that is working the halls of the NC General Assembly to quietly pass some similar legislation that could negatively impact small collectors. The rendering companies have seen an army of small collection companies chipping away at their restaurant accounts in order to sell their waste vegetable oil to biodiesel plants like TBI, so now they’re fighting back by changing the law to protect them. Ironically, the small renderers typically provide better service, remove the oil more frequently, and generate a better product for us as biodiesel feedstock (the oil from the large renderers is usually rotten and full of water). Furthermore, most of the oil collected by the large rendering companies never goes to renewable fuel plants, it goes to feed mill plants that add it to livestock feed, thus putting it back into the food chain. Yes, you are eating animals that have been fed the carcasses, fat, and ground up parts of other animals in their feed. Europe has banned this practice (Since October 2004, waste vegetable cooking oil can no longer be used as an ingredient in animal feed. See Animal By-Products Regulation EC 1774/2002).
Want to help? Contact your NC state representative and tell them that NC needs biofuels, and tell them you promote small business and don’t want tighter regulations on small companies trying to promote biofuels. Contact Bev Purdue and let her know that Virginia made a mistake by choking off small companies that are trying to fuel the biodiesel industry, and doing so in North Carolina will kill what is left of the biodiesel industry in this state.
Contact Bev Purdue: http://www.governor.state.nc.us/forms/contact.aspx
Find your state representative: http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/
Nasty WVO Bin
The rendering industry in Virginia lead the charge to that got a law (just singed by their governor last month) that imposes a layer of regulation that adds significant compliance costs to small collectors. My understanding is that they have hired a firm that is working the halls of the NC General Assembly to quietly pass some similar legislation that could negatively impact small collectors. No bills have been introduced so there's nothing to look at and they may be positioning it as a technical correction to keep it below the radar.
