Buses in Ames may soon consume a more environmentally friendly form of fuel.

Members of the Government of Student Body senate will vote Wednesday on a bill to fund a transition to soy-based fuel in CyRide buses.

If adopted, the bill provides for $10,000 to be taken from the GSB Special Projects Account and transferred to an Activities Account, where it will be used to pay for the overlap costs between regular fuel and biodiesel.

Drew Miller, GSB off-campus senator and author of the bill, said the switch to biodiesel would provide students with environmental and economic benefits.

“This is one of those things where everybody wins,” he said.

The bill stipulates that, since biodiesel fuel was created from technology and products supported by Iowa State, and the rate of particle emission is much lower in the hybrid than in regular gas, GSB should help CyRide implement the change to the soy-based fuel additive.

GSB President Mike Banasiak said the bill would require caution on the part of senators, given the lack of information and the large dollar amount surrounding the project.

“I don’t know much about biodiesel in general,” he said. “I would need much more information before I hand over $10,000 in student money to CyRide so that they can try a new fuel. Everybody’s having budget problems these days, so maybe $10,000 for this kind of project might be fiscally irresponsible.”

Banasiak illustrated his point by comparing the “Soybeans Save Lives” bill to one defeated last week that would have cut vice-presidential compensation in half in order to reduce GSB costs.

“Compare them to each other, and it looks a little funny,” he said. “We pay more and more every year to CyRide through fees, and at a time when they’re forced to cut routes and service times, they want money to switch fuels.”

Miller said the final cost would likely be no where near the allocated amount, and the $10,000 set aside at Banasiak’s disposal was simply a “cushion fund.”

The amount of money given to CyRide for the conversion would be decided, he said, as the viability of the program itself became more clear.

Bob Bourne, director of CyRide, said if the bill is passed, CyRide will gradually phase biodiesel into buses, starting with five or six of the older vehicles and working along the same standards used by the Iowa Department of Transportation, which uses biodiesel in its snowplows.

“I just want to make sure we’re getting a good product,” Bourne said. “But I think it will probably help clean up the exhaust, so that’s a good thing.”

A similar program, he said, had been tried by CyRide five or six years ago, and had poor results. After five months, the biodiesel had burned out the fuel injectors in 19 motors, which resulted in excessive, thick smoke.

The Iowa DOT, which funded the conversion as an experiment, paid for the replacement of the injectors, and said the problem had been caused by bacteria present in the additive.