Bio-dads

Four years ago, longtime friends and neighbors Lance McCardle and Cambell Jones, cofounders of LC Biofuels, started making their own blend of biodiesel in Jones’s Novato garage.

They wanted to create a more environmentally sound, domestically based fuel source for McCardle’s eco-trucking business. As fathers they were also concerned about the planet their children would inherit. “We want our kids’ generation to grow up with cleaner air and a country that is independently producing its own energy,” McCardle says. “Making biodiesel conveniently available to the public and offering the construction and agricultural industry price incentives is how we are doing our part.”

One key benefit of their fuel is that it can be used in an existing diesel engine without any modifications. “Using biodiesel reduces polluting emissions by as much as 75 percent [compared to petroleum diesel],” says McCardle. Certified by the international standards group ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials), LC Biofuels’ product is nontoxic, biodegradable and safe to handle, made with oil entirely from American canola and soybean crops. This is possibly the most attractive feature for many biodiesel converts—that the source for the fuel is grown in the USA. According to McCardle, “American farmers are really the biggest part of the biodiesel industry, as they are now able to get better pricing for their crops and are among the biggest consumers of biodiesel fuel.”

LC Biofuels currently has stations in Richmond and San Anselmo (at Green Fusion Design Center, 14 Greenfield Drive) and is working on establishing new pumps in West Marin and South Marin. Another station is set to open in the South Lake Tahoe area soon. Check lcbiofuels.com for updates.


Mimi Towle

Mimi Towle has been the editor of Marin Magazine for over a decade. She lived with her family in Sycamore Park and Strawberry and thoroughly enjoyed raising two daughters in the mayhem of Marin’s youth sports; soccer, swim, volleyball, ballet, hip hop, gymnastics and many many hours spent at Miwok Stables. Her community involvements include volunteering at her daughter’s schools, coaching soccer and volleyball (glorified snack mom), being on the board of both Richardson Bay Audubon Center. Currently residing on a floating home in Sausalito, she enjoys all water activity, including learning how to steer a 6-person canoe for the Tamalpais Outrigger Canoe Club. Born and raised in Hawaii, her fondness for the islands has on occasion made its way into the pages of the magazine.