Published: February 20, 2002
Union Democrat 

By MIKE JENSEN 

Parking 48 chugging locomotives in a remote area in western Tuolumne County will produce 100 megawatts of electricity, create thousands of jobs and reduce toxic air pollution.

That's according to Sierra Railroad Co. President Mike Hart -- who wants to connect the engines' enormous electric generators to the state's power grid and run them on environmentally friendly diesel fuel made from plants.

If his plans continue as smoothly as they have over the last year, the engines could be parked about five miles southwest of Keystone by the end of summer -- contributing a total of about 100 megawatts of electricity to the state's power grid during times of peak demand. That's enough to provide power to about 100,000 homes.

As part of its plans to purchase 250 megawatts of "green" electricity per year, the California Consumer Power and Conservation Financing Authority has already agreed to purchase 100 megawatts per year for the next five years from Hart. The remaining 150 megawatts will come from running biodiesel fuel in regular gas-turbine power plants.

Hart said the cost he'll be paid for the electricity is less than market price.

Hart got the idea of using locomotives to produce electricity during a blackout in January 2001 when he was looking at a locomotive in Sierra Railroad's engine maintenance shop.

"I was going, 'there's enough power here to light almost all of Oakdale,'" he recalled.

At the same time, Hart had already been considering alternatives to the high-polluting diesel fuel now used in locomotives.

 "Bio-fuel became the logical choice," he said.

While it may sound like the latest vitamin-enhanced sport drink, "biodiesel" is an engine fuel produced from plant oil -- it's biodegradable, nontoxic and produces no sulfur or carbon emissions like traditional diesel.

Soy, mustard and canola can all be used to make biodiesel. "It's considered food," Hart said. "You can eat it -- you can put it on your salad if you want to."