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# Biofuels are great — sometimes
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/biofuels-are-great-sometimes-editor/
- Published: 2008-01-24T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T18:09:10.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By Mike Matosian Vice-President Southern California Disposal and Recycling*

Lloyd Garver’s column (“Are biofuels just garbage?” page 4, Jan. 19-20) correctly identified some of the potential concerns of biofuels being made from crops that are grown in rain forests and other sensitive habitats. However, there is plenty of biodiesel available that is made from crops that are grown responsibly on American farms.

Our Santa Monica based company, Southern California Disposal and Recycling, converted our fleet of diesel collection trucks from petroleum based diesel to biodiesel last May. We switched to biodiesel because we wanted to do our part to reduce global warming. By using fuel made from soybeans we have made a significant reduction in green house gas emissions. We have reduced carbon monoxide and particulate matter by almost 50 percent and each year we will prevent well over 1 million pounds of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere.

This commitment to reducing green house gasses does come at a cost to our company because right now biodiesel is more expensive. However, we feel that protecting the environment is worth the cost. There are new and exciting technologies emerging in the biofuels field such as making fuel from prairie grass and even algae. We believe that our support of biodiesel will help push these new technologies into the market place. The use of responsibly made biofuels will make a significant environment impact as well as lessening our nation’s … dependency on foreign oil. We are proud to be leaders in these efforts and encourage other operators of diesel fleets to join us in making an impact on global warming and domestic resource independence.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 24, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/012408.pdf?ref=smdp.com)