ATA supports the voluntary use of high quality biodiesel in low percentage blends.  While high percentage biodiesel blends present economic and operational challenges for the trucking industry, low percentage blends of high quality biodiesel (<5 percent) perform comparably to today’s diesel fuel.  In an effort to protect the trucking industry from poor quality biodiesel and to enable trucking companies to make an educated decision on whether to purchase biodiesel, ATA worked to enact federal legislation that ensures that only high quality biodiesel is sold, establishes a uniform pump labeling system, and creates a federal program to protect consumers from biodiesel price spikes. 

ATA participates in the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM International) organization to improve the consensus standards applicable to biodiesel.  ATA is also working with the State Trucking Associations to oppose state boutique biodiesel mandates.  To date, seven states have enacted biodiesel mandates (i.e., Minnesota, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington) and we anticipate the need to continue to oppose state biodiesel mandate initiatives throughout 2010.