Birmingham’s current effort to go green, which currently includes initiatives like Mayor Langford’s 4-day work week and scrap metal recycling program, could be expanded soon to include a plan to implement a regional plan to use E85 fuel made from wood waste in the city’s 130 current fleet of flex fuel vehicles and other vehicles in the area’s three largest cities.

The mayor’s office let us know that he recently met with Hoover Mayor Tony Petelos and Mayor Ed May of Bessemer to discuss the possibility of developing just such a regional plan. According to the press release, Birmingham alone generates an estimated 16,000 tons of wood waste per year.

“One ton of wood waste generates an estimated 215 gallons of E85 fuel. Just based on that, this City could generate three times our annual fuel consumption,” said Mayor Langford.

Hoover Mayor Tony Petelos has met with Gulf Coast Energy (GCE) CEO Mark Warner to discuss plans under way to process that city’s wood waste into ethanol at a plant being developed by GCE in Livingston. The proposed partnership would allow the three cities involved to negotiate a better per gallon rate due to the volume of wood waste that they can provide combined.