Comment Log Display

May 23, 2007
Dr. Robert F. Sawyer 
Chairman, California Air Resources Board
P.O. Box 2815
Sacramento, California 95812

Dear Dr. Sawyer:

The City of Berkeley strongly supports the application by Biofuel
Oasis for a grant under the Alternative Fuels Incentive Program
(AFIP) to assist in the funding of its new fueling station at 1441
Ashby Avenue in Berkeley.  Biofuel Oasis has successfully operated
a biodiesel fueling station for more than three years at Dwight
Way and Fourth Street.  This is an industrial district with
restricted visibility and somewhat circuitous access.  
Nevertheless, Biofuel Oasis has built up a large customer base
among the growing number of biodiesel users in Berkeley and the
East Bay.

We understand that Biofuel Oasis is the top runner up in the AFIP
category.  I am writing to urge that you consider funding this
important project as part of this year’s grant program.  
As you can see in their application, Biofuel Oasis has secured a
lease for a former gas station site at 1441 Ashby where it plans
to relocate its biodiesel fueling station.  This site is on State
Highway 13 (Ashby Avenue) where it intersects with Sacramento.  It
is a prominent and very visible location that should give great
publicity to biodiesel as an alternative fuel and allow Biofuel
Oasis to expand its customer base.  Of course, I am also very
enthusiastic about Biofuel Oasis as a successful woman-owned
business in a cutting-edge field.  

As a former State Assemblyperson, and the husband of a current
Assemblyperson, I believe that Biofuel Oasis’s new fueling station
is the kind of project that the State Legislature wanted to support
when it created the Alternative Fuels Incentive Program. 

Please give this application all due consideration.  It is an
exciting and timely project.

Sincerely,
 
Tom Bates 
Mayor