Polling has got to be a growth industry in an election year. American’s seem to delight in being told by pollsters what their neighbors have just told the pollsters. For many years, most American’s polled have told pollsters they consider themselves to be concerned about the quality of the environment. USM students, at least most of those that voted in last spring’s student election, appear to be in this environmental mainstream. In last semester’s vote, students didn’t just tell a pollster their environmental druthers, by a five to one margin they voted to put up a dollar-per-student each year to pay for cleaner air, better health, and reduced reliance on foreign oil. It was a nice offer. For less than the cost of a cup of organic, shade-grown, fair trade coffee, USM students were willing to pay to have B20, a 20% vegetable oil-petrodiesel fuel blend, used in university shuttle buses.
The university administration declined the additional money but did earmark $10,000.00 to be used to cover the upfront incremental cost of using B20 in USM shuttle buses. Union Oil Company on Commercial Street in Portland recently established a B20 fill station that makes it possible to begin using biodiesel in the Portland Hall Shuttle. The Union fill station is less than half a mile from Portland Hall and it is hoped that the Portland Hall Shuttle will begin filling up with B20 before the national election. With the benefit of a biofuel tax credit that goes into effect January 1, 2005, the university’s $10,000 is expected to buy more than enough B20 to run all university shuttles for well over a year. The Student Biodiesel Initiative attracted an anonymous matching $10,000.00 donation to the university that will make it possible for an additional 40,000 gallons or so of biofuel blend to be burned in USM’s Gorham Central Heating Plant. Facilities Management expects its first delivery of biofuel to the Gorham campus sometime after January 1, 2005.
What down stream benefits might be realized from the $10,000.00 “upfront” cost of burning B20 biodiesel in USM’s shuttles? On an annual “net” basis, USM’s shuttle fleet will release over 33 fewer tons of global-warming CO2 and other air pollutants. Some glacier might melt a little slower. Maine’s beautiful coastal beaches might be covered with a rising ocean a little slower. Maple sap might run a little stronger in future years and Maine’s maple syrup industry might retreat into Canada a little slower. There will be about a 12% reduction in releases of particulate matter in the exhaust and scientists tell us that the cancer-causing potential of the remaining particulates will be reduced by 27%. A woman in Canada’s Maritimes might be spared the tragedy of cancer. Fewer particulates and other air pollutants might mean an asthmatic child won’t need a visit to an emergency room next spring. A down wind blueberry farmer downeast might avoid the anguish of a heart attack. Maine’s highest-in-the-nation reported childhood asthma rate might begin to go down. Our medical insurance costs might stop going up.
Because the vegetable oil used to make the biofuel comes from US farm fields instead of foreign oilfields our imbalance of payments might move toward a balance. Fewer US soldiers might be used to protect pipelines, shipping lanes and oilfields. Tomorrow’s oil spills might become vegetable oil compost piles instead of toxic Superfund sites. Locally grown biofuels could really catch on. America might fight fewer resource-wars. America could use the money we don’t use fighting wars to reduce our national debt. Medicare and Social Security could become just a bit more secure. School funding from the Feds might improve and, even though they get to school, fewer children will be left behind. The USM students who voted for the Student Biodiesel Initiative understand that a moment spent on constructive civic engagement can offer benefits that would not otherwise be achieved by any one of their small individual contributions. Maybe the university will begin to offer credit for an independent study in such positive civic engagement. A full-cost accounting of USM’s willingness to spend $10,000 on biofuel suggests that all 11,000 of USM’s students will get much more than one dollar back. And the air will smell a bit better outside Bailey Hall and the Woodbury Campus Center.
Last Semester, some 600 USM students voted to make the world a healthier, more equitable place and it appears the USM administration has listened FootPrint hopes these students and all their classmates cast similarly hopeful ballots tomorrow, November 2. The world can be a healthier, more equitable place. We are all down wind of somebody else. We are all in this together.