Originally aired January 11, 2002

Reported by Statewide correspondent, Mike Tobias .

Semi trailer trucks. Farm and construction equipment. City buses. These vehicles and others use millions of gallons of diesel fuel each year. These vehicles could be a goldmine for the state's soybean farmers.
[Victor Bohuslavsky]The next big homerun hitter for the soybean industry… its going to use a lot of product, is the soydiesel product.
[Rick Emery]That press then squeezes the oil out. The meal comes out one end; the oil comes out the other.
This is the first step in making soydiesel. The soybean oil goes through additional processing before it's used as fuel. The amount of soy in soydiesel varies, from just one percent to 100 percent.
Greg Anderson is a fifth-generation soybean farmer and Soybean Board member. He started using soydiesel last summer.
[Greg Anderson]What I know that I'm doing is extending that engine life and making my equipment last longer.
That's soydiesel's main selling point. Right now traditional diesel fuel contains sulfur, a lubricant that cuts down on wear. Sulfur also hurts air quality. That's why federal guidelines will reduce the amount of sulfur in diesel fuel to next-to-nothing in the near future. Soydiesel supporters say their product replaces that lost lubrication.
[ Bohuslavsky]One of the large injection pump companies said that if all diesel fuel in the United States would carry a two-percent level of soy, they would not have any injection pump failures
The State Department of Roads has used soydiesel in more than a thousand diesel vehicles for five years.
[Tom Sands]We've done oil analysis and we haven't seen any excessive wear on our engines since we've been using it. We really like the product. We think its saved us repair costs in the long run and I think it's a benefit to all of us to use it.
Cleaner air is another selling point. Milford Hanna heads the University's Industrial Agricultural Products Center. He's been involved in soydiesel research for more than two decades.
[ Milford Hanna]It just cleans up the emissions, for the most part. Probably the most visible emission from a diesel engine is the particulates and when you add a little bit of biodiesel it really cuts down on that.
Hanna says emissions are probably a bigger concern in larger cities outside Nebraska.
[ Hanna]Probably, trucks running on the interstate in Nebraska, spewing out a little bit of black smoke probably isn't too big of an issue.
For farmers like Greg Anderson, soydiesel is a way to sell more soybeans.
[ Anderson]We figure that if every diesel engine in the United States ran on a one-percent blend, that would use 400 million bushels of soybeans. And that's double the amount that we exported to China just last year.
[ Bohuslavsky]And that is a large market. That has the potential to move the market by ten cents. In other words increase the value of soybeans being sold by ten cents.
So far, though, that hasn't happened. Depending on who you talk to cost may or may not be one reason. When it's one or two-percent soy, the cost is a few cents higher than traditional diesel. Some trucking industry officials say that extra costs add up too quickly for drivers. Others, though, say it's worth the expense.
[ Sands]On the two-percent blends we're looking at an average of three to four cents a gallon more. And that's giving us a premium diesel fuel so that's really not out of line.
So it's worth it?
[ Sands]It's well worth it in the long run.
Finding soydiesel may be a greater problem. If you life in northeast Nebraska, Husker Co-op will fill up at this facility in Osceola and bring soydiesel to you. Right now they have a handful of customers - farmers and a grain trucking company. It's also available at the pump or in jugs at a growing number of co-ops and other fuel suppliers.
Soybean grower Rod Hassebrook says he'd use soydiesel if it were easier to get. But right now its not.
[ Hassebrook]The biggest problem has just been availability in this area. It's just the co-ops are just starting to provide a lot of it.
Tim Baker runs his own grain trucking business. He's never used soydiesel.
[Tim Baker]Never even thought about it. It's not available here. I buy a lot of fuel here so I use what they get, you know.
This is why the Nebraska Soybean Board spent about a hundred thousand dollars in farmer check-off dollars marketing soydiesel last year.
[Commercial]Which is a win-win situation for everybody.
These TV commercials were part of an effort designed to get more people, especially farmers, using soydiesel… and more fuel suppliers carrying it.
[Commercial]Soybean biodiesel fuel, use it.
[ Bohuslavsky]All our efforts have been to take the producer side and get them totally behind the product, using the product, and seeing that it will mushroom over into the trucking industry, over into the large industrial use customers.
Right now it isn't happening, but making soydiesel in Nebraska is another possibility. Bruning Grain and Feed makes and markets soybean oil and soybean meal. They're exploring the possibility of making soydiesel as well.
[ Emery]I think public attitude right at this moment is lessen reliance on foreign oils. That's pretty top-of-mind for most Nebraskans. This does lessen the reliance on foreign oils so we're excited about it.
A state Department of Economic Development study agrees. It identifies alternative fuel production as a good opportunity for Nebraska's economy. Others question the need for local soydiesel production.
[ Hanna]It's a pretty expensive business to get into. And although I think it has a good future, I think right now until we get a little more of a market established and we kinda get things figured out in terms of what our production capability is versus what our market is. I wouldn't to advise somebody to be building a new facility.
While farmers benefit, the success of soydiesel likely lies in getting large fleets of non-farm vehicles using the fuel. Interest in this area is steadily growing. Two Lincoln city buses use soydiesel on an experimental level. The Omaha Public Power District uses soydiesel in 85 of its large trucks. But if drivers at this Grand Island truck stop are any indication, there's still some work to be done with the trucking industry.
[Larry Miller]No, I've never really heard about it.
[Willie Boyd]I have to put in what they tell me to put in.
Do you hear other truckers talk about it at all?
[Willie Boyd]No. No, never heard… as a matter of fact, it's the first time I've ever heard of it.
Two bills in Congress could boost soydiesel use. One gives tax credits to biodiesel users. The other requires a certain amount of ethanol or biodiesel in every gallon of motor vehicle fuel sold in the U.S.
Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel is a sponsor of each bill. He wants to decrease U.S. reliance on foreign oil.
[Senator Chuck Hagel]Energy independence is very important for our position in the world, a global competitive position in the world. Being able to sell our small business products and our services.
Hagel says the Renewable Fuels for Energy Security Act could replace 9 billion gallons of imported oil every year. And in our current world environment, that soydiesel benefit may eventually be more important than soybean prices or engine wear.

Reporting for STATEWIDE, I'm Mike Tobias.