14 DAY TRIAL // Recent news from California informs us that, starting this past Tuesday, four gas stations in Bay Area took to selling algae-based fuel.
Truth be told, the alternative fuel presently made available by these gas stations is actually a combination of 20% algae and 80% petroleum.
However, this does not change the fact that, as the people responsible for putting it on the market explain, significant progress has been made in terms of pushing for a cleaner transportation industry.
Matt Horton, presently employed as chief executive officer of Propel Fuels, made a case of how, for the time being, roughly one million people in California own and drive a vehicle whose makeup allows it to run on alternative fuels.
The only downside is that a supply line for these green-oriented vehicles is yet to be developed.
“It really is an access question that we're working to remedy. None of these fuels are a silver bullet that is going to fix the problem and get us off oil. It's going to be a variety of fuels,” Matt Horton commented with respect to this project.
“Our task is to drive awareness. When consumers know it is available, that it is priced right and it reduces carbon emissions, they will use it,” he went on to add.
Up until now, this algae-based fuel now sold by Propel's gas stations in Redwood City, San Jose, Berkeley and Oakland was mainly used by the military and by industrial companies, the San Francisco Chronicle says.
Matt Horton hopes that, should customers be satisfied with the product, said gas stations will continue selling it. Moreover, he expects that others will follow in Propel Fuels' footsteps.
As this greenhead puts it, “Today, at this station, we are putting a stake in the ground. We hope to build hundreds of stations like this in California.”