PIBluvr.com – A Put-in-Bay, Ohio Fan Website

Miller Boat Line is greening up its ferry service to Put-in-Bay, Ohio, this season by using a 10 to 20 percent biodiesel blend in one of its passenger vessels, the William Market. Put-in-Bay is located on South Bass Island in southwestern Lake Erie. The fuel, G2 Diesel, is produced locally in Ohio and is made from reacting soybean oil and ethanol—not fossil-derived methanol as most biodiesel processes use. Scott Market, vice president of Miller Boat Line, said the company has become the only environmentally friendly option for tourists. Using biodiesel costs the company more than traditional diesel but Miller Boat Line said it will keep ferry service fares the same. Miller Boat Line stated it has plans to eventually use G2 Diesel blends in all four of its vessels.

On 13 acres of long-vacant land in the Chicago Stockyards Industrial Corridor, Testa Produce Inc.’s new headquarters, expected to be the first U.S. food distribution facility to achieve LEED Platinum certification, is under construction. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a system used to rate the sustainability of construction projects governed by the U.S. Green Building Council. At $20 million, the facility’s sustainable features include a wind turbine and solar panels to generate half of the facility’s power, a partially vegetated roof to prevent storm-water runoff and an external retention pond, among many others. Testa Produce’s fleet of 55 diesel delivery trucks is also running on B11.

Little Rock, Ark.-based biodiesel consulting group Lee Enterprises announced the addition of Lisa Screeton of Hilton Head, S.C., to lead the Grants and Government Relations division of the firm. “The combination of the economy and partisan politics has made for a difficult couple of years,” owner Wayne Lee said. “But it does appear that the industry is now headed up in a big way.” Lee said he recently read that once oil hits $125 a barrel, one-half of the world’s wealth would be held by the OPEC nations. “Once we realize what this means, we will realize the urgency of the situation,” he said. Screeton gives the firm a national balance, Lee said, with consultants on both the East and West coasts and in the central U.S. He noted that the firm’s fluency in multiple languages also is of vital importance in dealing with international customers.