Register Guard "Best of"...SeQuential Retail Station
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BEST LOW-GUILT GAS STATION
Being socially responsible isn't always easy. Nobody knows that better than Team Best of ... Sure, we try to do our part: recycling, buying organic (when the price doesn't give us a heart attack), letting the lawn go brown in August, keeping the winter thermostat under control. But, hey, we're not perfect, and a couple of team members must confess upfront. We drive gas guzzlers. We're sorry, OK? Peak oil notwithstanding, some of us really do need our trucks, and you will only pry the steering wheel out of our cold, dead fingers. Fortunately, we now can feel a smidge less guilty, thanks to the arrival of a new gas station in Eugene. SeQuential Biofuels opened a couple of weeks ago, offering not just biodiesel blends but also ethanol. For the first time, we can spend our fueling-up cash on something that is at least partially homegrown and renewable. SeQuential is a Eugene-based company that opened a biodiesel production facility in Salem last year, making fuel from used cooking oil supplied by Kettle, the snack food maker. They've got biodiesel stations all over the state. The new local station also includes blends with ethanol, a fuel derived from corn or sugar cane. Whether you drive a diesel vehicle, one of those fancy flex-fuel rigs or an ordinary gas-powered car, they've got a blend that will work. When we showed up for the first time, their polite - and informed - pump jockeys steered us in the right direction. We know ethanol has its naysayers who complain that the energy required to produce it exceeds the energy of the fuel created. And we were as dismayed as anybody to read the most recent Consumer Reports magazine, which found that E85 - the 15 percent gas, 85 percent ethanol blend - worsens a car's overall fuel economy. But we figure these alternative fuels are in their infancy. Producers are still working out the kinks, and we like supporting their efforts. Besides, SeQuential isn't just about the fuel. It also has a convenience store stocked with organic soda pop and chocolate, chlorine-free diapers, nonpetroleum lip balm, plus other last-minute essentials. It also has a small but decent variety of beer and wine. Better still, the store houses Sweet Shots, a satellite of the city's most decadent bakery: Sweet Life Patisserie. Like the outside fuel pumps, Sweet Shots is big on choices. It's got a full range of the butter-and-sugar confections we know and love, but for the allergy-challenged it offers egg-free, dairy-free and wheat-free options, too. When we stopped by the other day, we had berry pie and coffee and inhaled a delectable caramel chocolate while we sat at the tiny coffee bar and - we are not ashamed to confess - enjoyed the ambience. Our only bone to pick with the place is that it's not on our beaten path - located off of Interstate 5 just north of the 30th Avenue exit. We suggest you give it a try before the Lane Community College students discover it and the friendly staff no longer have time to chat about the green roof, or the solar panels on the overhead canopies, or the surrounding bioswale, or the many other elements that make this compact building a fine addition to Eugene's growing collection of environmentally friendly locales. BEST LOW-GUILT GAS STATION Where: 86714 McVay Highway, accessible from the 30th Avenue exit from Interstate 5 Copyright © 2006 The Register-Guard |
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