John Boesel is the president and chief executive officer of WestStart-CALSTART, an organization dedicated to the growth of the advanced transportation technology industry that will improve air quality, reduce greenhouse gases and enhance national security.

Headquartered in Pasadena, Calif., it provides services to nearly 120 different member organizations including Ballard, Volvo, Segway, Freightliner, Caterpillar, John Deere & Co., BAE Systems, Cummins-Westport, Enova Systems, and Mack Truck.

Married with two children, Boesel lives in the San Francisco Bay area.

Vaughan: Is hydrogen the answer to our non-polluting, transportation fuel needs? I've heard you say hydrogen fuel cell passenger cars won't be around until at least 2015.

Boesel: The answer is that we need to quickly and dramatically reduce our dependence on oil to prevent climate change, lessen dependence on oil-producing countries in the Middle East and improve air quality.

Hydrogen can be part of the longer-term solution, but it may take a while and we shouldn't put all of our eggs into that basket. The U.S. Department of Energy believes there are so many unknowns about hydrogen that a decision about the business case for hydrogen can't even be made until 2015.

Starting right now, we could be making greater use of biofuels, renewable electricity, natural gas, lighter-weight materials, hybrid technology and improvements in internal combustion engines.

We'll really start seeing some progress when we combine some of these features in a light-weight, hybrid electric, biofuel vehicle.

Vaughan: What are you getting at when you say we're moving from a mono-fuel present to a poly-fuel future?

Boesel: Today, we basically only use one fuel, oil, to power our vehicles in North America.

For a variety of economic and environmental reasons, there simply isn't one fuel out there that can replace oil on a one-for-one basis.

The smartest thing we can do is begin making our vehicles much more efficient and start using a variety of cleaner and domestically available fuels.

We're slowly starting to see this happen. In Los Angeles, they have the largest U.S. natural gas bus fleet. In Minnesota, they have more than 100 stations that sell ethanol.

Hybrids are one of the fastest-growing market segments in the auto industry.

It should be pointed out that we made a transition from a mono-fuel (wood) to a poly-fuel system for electricity generation over a century ago.

Vaughan: Let's talk about biogas. Toronto has shipped millions of tons of organic material in garbage to Michigan for disposal. You worked on the California-Sweden Biogas Initiative that made much better use of "trash."

Boesel: Biogas is basically methane derived from biological sources such as manure, and waste streams from food processing and sewage treatment plants.

The Swedes have figured out how to economically process the methane from these sources and then make it available in cars, trucks and buses.

Natural gas, which we draw from the ground, is also basically methane.

The difference between natural gas and biogas is that biogas is renewable.

The Swedes are projecting that biogas could provide 10 to 20 per cent of the nation's transportation energy. In a poly-fuel society, that's a solid contribution.

Developing biogas also helps protect water supplies, prevents soil contamination and thus lessens the chances of climate change.

Vaughan: If the Swedes can get 20 per cent of their transportation fuel from biogas, that's huge. Are they making any serious progress on it and does it give you any ideas for California that you can push on your friend governor Arnold Schwarzenegger?

Boesel: In Western Sweden alone, there are already more than 4,500 vehicles that run on methane -- with 45 per cent of the methane coming from renewable biological sources.

There are 17 biogas production plants, 24 biogas-only refuelling stations and 20 stations where biogas and natural gas are blended.

Volvo deserves a lot of credit for being a forward-thinking car company and making methane gas vehicles.

We're studying the Swedish model carefully and hope to be powering vehicles on biogas in California within a couple of years. Not many people are aware that agriculture remains California's largest industry and that it's the largest dairy state in the country. So, we have plenty of biogas feedstock.

Vaughan: Then I guess what you're saying is that Toronto's crazy to be paying millions of dollars to ship away a significant source of environmentally friendly fuel.

Boesel: I've only met sane and smart people in Toronto, but let me get to your question about fuel from landfills. Landfill gas has many more impurities than methane derived from biological sources. There are metals and other chemicals in it that make it challenging to power vehicles from landfill gas.

While some refuse trucks are running on landfill gas, it's a lot more economical and technically simple to generate electricity from that same gas. Regardless of how it's used, it's really important to capture that gas. Methane is a greenhouse gas and a major contributor to climate change. Operators of landfills should be encouraged or maybe even required to use this fuel to create either electricity or transportation energy.

For more information: http://www.weststart.org

Michael Vaughan Live is on at 6 to 7 p.m. Monday to Friday on Report on Business Television.