Red Hook's role in making this a greener world, could be as the home for a new biodiesel refinery that would convert millions of gallons of used cooking oil and animal fat collected from New York City kitchens into diesel fuel. Yum. Specifically, the new Brooklyn Paper reports that a company is looking for a $4 million city grant to build a plant and "tank farm" on a 15,000 square foot site on Columbia Street near Halleck. There would also be a filling station for trucks and buses.
The upside is that biodiesel burns 78 percent cleaner than regular diesel. The downside is that the site is across the street from the popular Red Hook ball fields and park and could make retrieving an over-the-fence shot pretty gross. We're no biodiesel specialists, but woudn't tens of thousands of gallons of used and/or rancid cooking oil kind of maybe smell bad?
· An energy solution on hook [Brooklyn Papers]