More than 450 service stations in Colombia have sold bio-gasoline — a mix of 90 percent gasoline with 10 percent carburant alcohol — to more than 1.5 million drivers since Feb. 1. The bio-gas effort involves the departments of Bogotá, Cundinamarca, Meta, Casanare and some towns in Boyacá, said Julio César Vera, hydrocarbon director at the Ministry of Mining and Energy.

Vera told Tierramérica that the program, launched in late 2005 in the largest cities of the western departments of Nariño, Cauca and Valle del Cauca, will be extended to the rest of the country as the supplies of carburant alcohol increase.

The arrival of biofuel in central Colombia will counteract the price hikes in gasoline and curb emissions of polluting particulate in the atmosphere, Vera said.