I am confident that this decision will pay dividends in both fleet performance and help the City of San Leandro meet its greenhouse gas emission targets.
The Californian city of San Leandro has made an environmental decision that it says will cut its greenhouse gas emissions by up to 80%, after it decreed that all of its district vehicles will use only 100% renewable diesel instead of fossil-based alternatives. The Alameda County city has made the switch to MY Renewable Diesel, the fuel produced by oil refining company, Neste, which requires no blending and is suitable for use in all diesel engines.
San Leandro will gain more than just environmental benefits and a reduction in emissions from using the low carbon bio-diesel, as according to Neste its latest fuel will also enhance fleet performance. San Leandro operates approximately 160 vehicles.
As part of Californias commitment, San Leandro aims to cut its emission by 25% below that which it produced in 2005. Speaking about the work it was doing in San Leandro, Neste vice president Jeremy Baines, said they were excited to add the city to the list of what it called progressive-minded California cities. I am confident that this decision will pay dividends in both fleet performance and help the City of San Leandro meet its greenhouse gas emission targets, he said.
The move by the city comes three years after fellow Californian city, San Francisco, made the move to Nestes alternative fuel to run just under 2,000 vehicles, amounting to more than 5.5bn gallons. The two cities which followed cities Walnut Creek and Oakland in their use of Neste (@NesteGlobal)renewable fuel made the move after Californias previous governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, signed a law in 2006 that was set up to bring emission levels in the USs most populous state down to 1990 levels by 2020. Named the Cap and Trade programme, businesses and factories that emit large quantities of carbon emissions have to pay for each tonne produced, which has raised more than $3bn funds this year that is then spent on green initiatives.
However, a serious potential disruption to Californias carbon-cutting initiative is taking place in June 2018 in the form of a state vote Proposition 70. Should the vote change the current law, it would give Republican legislators more powers on how to spend the money that has been made possible from the original Democrats-introduced Cap and Trade programme.
As reported by Californias Mercury News, the US environmental group, The Sierra Club, said that Republican legislators did not in their opinion make suitable climate change activists. A good number in the Legislature are outright deniers, or even if they acknowledge climate change, they arent willing to do anything significant about it, said Kathryn Phillips, its executive director.
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