Not local ... but Minnesota continues to lead in the biodiesel push:

Gov. Tim Pawlenty wants to raise Minnesota's biodiesel mandate from 2 percent to 20 percent, a move that would boldly send Minnesota where no state has gone before.

And critics would say where it shouldn't go.

The soybean-based diesel has a checkered past in chilly Minnesota, and even the 2 percent mandate led to a winter of woes. But now the industry says its start-up problems have been fixed, and it's eager to see Minnesota take the lead into a cleaner, greener future.

On Thursday, Pawlenty proposed raising, step by step, the level of biodiesel that must be blended into every gallon of diesel fuel sold in Minnesota. If the Legislature agrees, the first step to 5 percent could come next year, and the level would reach 20 percent by 2015.

"Minnesota has led the nation in unleashing a renewable energy revolution," Pawlenty told a farm audience in Redwood County, referring to its first-in-the-nation biodiesel mandate. Four other states have followed, but none of them require more than a 5 percent blend.

"The governor has set a very ambitious goal that will certainly affect the trucking industry," said John Hausladen, president of the Minnesota Trucking Association. "He has said he will include us in these discussions, and we plan to take him up on that offer."

Minnesota currently is home to five biodiesel plants that together can produce 67 million gallons of biodiesel a year. That's four times what Minnesota needs to meet the current 2 percent mandate.

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