Bio-Diesel Days – (UPDATED: Independent Study Says Bio-Diesel NOT to Blame.)

January 20, 2009 · Filed Under Bio-Diesel, Commercial Fleets, FuelClinic, Fuelishness!

When I was a kid, to get to school we walked 20 miles up broken-glass-and-lava covered volcanic hills, dodging poison dart frogs and angry hornets, while reciting the entire unabridged Advanced Quantum Mechanics for Forth Graders… now those wipper-snappers get days because of gelled bio-diesel fuel…

All schools in the Bloomington School District will be closed today after state-required biodiesel fuel clogged in school buses Thursday morning and left dozens of students stranded in frigid weather, the district said late Thursday.

Rick Kaufman, the district’s spokesman, said elements in the biodiesel fuel that turn into a gel-like substance at temperatures below 10 degrees clogged about a dozen district buses Thursday morning. Some buses weren’t able to operate at all and others experienced problems while picking up students, he said.

h/t: HotAir

UPDATED 1/27/2009

It looks like the Bloomington School District has taken a closer look at their bus problems from last week were un-related to bio-diesel fuel.

Citing an independent study, the Minnesota Department of Commerce reiterated today that biodiesel was not the culprit that caused school buses in Bloomington, Minn. to malfunction last week.

“The problems with school buses in Minnesota had nothing to do with biodiesel,” said Bill Walsh, Communications Director for the Minnesota Department of Commerce. “An independent investigation confirmed what we believed last week – when it gets to 20 degrees below zero in the Midwest, diesel engines have trouble operating unless they are properly maintained – whether or not they are using a biodiesel blend.”