the hard numbers of biodiesel today

It takes 7.7 pounds of soy oil – or $4.34 (at $.56/lb) – to produce a gallon of biodiesel, according to the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute. Add overhead and other processing costs (about 70 cents per gallon), federal and state taxes (54 cents), and subtract the dollar tax credit, and a gallon of biodiesel could sell for $4.58 at the pump. Regular diesel sold for $4.15 a gallon today in Seattle. So biodiesel is more expensive than petro diesel. But not actually by much. I will dig up my historical graph and put this in persepctive later this week. The $.43/gallon difference is less than 10%. Would you pay a 10% premium to save the planet? I would.