Many state vehicles now must use farm-produced biodiesel

As vacationers head to the beach this summer, some of the Eastern Shore soybean fields they pass will be producing fuel for state transit buses and trucks.

Gov. Robert Ehrlich signed a bill Tuesday that requires at least half the state?s fleet of 2,500 diesel-fueled vehicles to use biodiesel fuel, generally a mixture fuel of fats and oilseeds like soybeans with petroleum-based diesel fuels. The state expects to buy almost 5 million gallons of biodiesel in the coming year, most of it going into the buses of the Mass Transit Administration.