Conservation holds key, speaker says Biodiesel focus at Wyoming Energy Conference

Using biodiesel fuel will save consumers money, ease dangerous emissions into the environment and lessen the country’s reliance on foreign oil, a speaker at a renewable energy conference said here Monday.

But even alternative energy won’t solve all our problems unless Americans stop using so much fuel, said Dan Leach of PowerShift Energy Co.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, consumers used five and a half more barrels of oil a day in 2004 than in 2003, and are expected to consume more than 22 million barrels a day in 2005.

"There are huge reserves in this world, but when the U.S., by itself, consumes over 22 million gallons a day … We import 62 percent of what we use," Leach said. "If something happened, it could get even tighter for fuel supplies."

By RENA DELBRIDGE
Star-Tribune correspondent

Full Story: http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2005/09/13/news/wyoming/ba8dfe1ff63fa05e8725707b0003fe52.txt