BIOFUELS: Proposed Brooklyn biodiesel plants could become part of NYC's green future

A pair of proposed biodiesel plants in Brooklyn, N.Y., could become two of New York City's biggest assets in Mayor Michael Bloomberg's (R) drive to go green.

The Metro Fuel Oil Corp., the owner of the fuel terminal in Greenpoint, is awaiting city approval to produce 110 million gallons of fuel per year from vegetable oils, making it one of the largest biofuels plants in the country.

A second, smaller plant has been proposed for Red Hook, Brooklyn. Both plants are expected to open next year.

Metro began producing biofuels two years ago, but Chief Operating Officer Tom Torre said that while the company has been interested in biofuels for some time, the cost of transporting the vegetable oil for refinement was an issue. "The cost factors were there," Torre said. "And we thought, 'You know, we could put a plant right here in the city.'"

Proponents of the plants say the city's green plan will create a market for the biodiesel.

Last month, Bloomberg announced 127 environmental proposals for New York City, including a goal to reduce the city's carbon emissions by 30 percent over the next 20 years (Greenwire, April 23).

Elements of the plan include an eventual goal of using biodiesel in school boilers and the city's heavy-truck fleet (Ray Rivera, New York Times, May 28). Indofood plans $1B palm-oil deal

A unit of one of the world's largest makers of instant noodles intends to buy Indonesian plantation firm PT London Sumatra for $1 billion to expand its palm oil operations.

If signed, the deal would make the Singapore-listed palm-oil unit of Indofood Agri Resources Ltd. a bigger player in Southeast Asian oil-palm production, expanding the area on which Indofood Agri is growing oil palms by nearly 85 percent to about 138,000 hectares (Wall Street Journal [subscription required], May 28). Uganda scraps forest-palm oil plan

The government of Uganda has decided to shelve its plans to convert thousands of hectares of rainforest on an island in Lake Victoria into a palm oil plantation after the company proposing the idea reversed its position.

Ugandan officials said last week the deal was scrapped after the company that was applying for the license, Kenya-based Bidco, backed off the idea over fears of negative publicity.

"Yes, we have stopped processing a license and the company will have to look for an alternative," said Environment Minister Mary Mutagamba.

Managers with Bidco denied that their application was asking specifically for the land on the island. Rather, the application was for any land for the plantation, they said, adding that they were still waiting for a response (Agence France-Presse, May 26). -- EB