John Haycock, president and chief executive of the company at that time, recognized that as dependence on foreign oil continued to increase and air quality continued to decrease, there was a need for a cleaner-burning fuel that could be produced in this country.

About the same time, Russell Teall of Biodiesel Development Corp., a Delaware-based company, began shopping his product around the valley.

Teall convinced Ron Corbett, who was then the fleet manager for the southern district of the Nevada Department of Transportation, to try biodiesel in a few of his trucks.

Biodiesel is a mixture of renewable materials, such as vegetable oil or recycled food grease that is made into a biofuel, which is then blended with diesel fuel.

Although Corbett expected to see some benefits from the product, he was surprised at how quickly and thoroughly the new product improved his vehicles.

One truck that had repeatedly failed a Department of Motor Vehicles test, which measures the density of emissions, immediately received a passing grade. Corbett calls this a light-bulb moment.

"We knew right away we had something," he said.

Haycock, a member of the Las Vegas Regional Clean Cities Coalition, also saw the test results, and had the same thought. He began working with Teall to bring the product into the valley and the demand grew fast.

With the federal government tying funding and grant money to air quality ratings, government agencies were eager to get their hands on a product that would burn cleaner.

Haycock Petroleum has been doing business in Las Vegas for 45 years. Photo by Tiffany Brown

Corbett credits Haycock with not only spearheading the effort to bring biodiesel into the valley, but also with helping smooth out the growing pains associated with introducing a new fuel alternative on such a large scale.

"He provided the business model to make the program work," Corbett, now Clark County's Automotive and Equipment Supervisor, said. "He's a real industry leader who worked for years to put the product to a test, even when it cost his company money."

Biodiesel of Las Vegas makes the product, which now uses soybean oil as its vegetable base, but Haycock is the distributor.

John Saxon, general manager of the Southern Region of Haycock Petroleum said Haycock's commitment to biodiesel never wavered.

"He believed it was the right thing to do for a number of reasons, and he stayed with it," Saxon said.

Of course, Haycock Petroleum is about more than just biodiesel. The company also sells all forms of commercial fuels, including unleaded, regular diesel and racing fuel, as well as propane, natural gas and commercial and industrial lubricants. It provides wholesale, retail or on-site delivery, automated fueling commercial cardlock fuel locations and fleet fueling. The company maintains two facilities here, on Bonanza Road and Sloan Lane, as well as full-service facilities in Bishop, Calif., and Caliente, Nev.

The company has served the Las Vegas market since 1955 when Clair Haycock, who started his career in the petroleum industry as a young wildcatter, founded it. Haycock handed the business over to his son, John, who continued the family tradition as an industry trailblazer.

While the company's place in Nevada history is secure, as it has been around more than half as long as the city it serves, its legacy may ultimately be established in the future.

Haycock now counts the Clark County School District, which uses biodiesel in all of its school busses and the City of Las Vegas diesel fleet, among its customers.

In addition, Sinclair Oil Corporation offers B-5, a biodiesel blend of 5 percent biofuel and 95 percent diesel, to the general public in southern Nevada at retail locations.

Industrial and fleet users generally use a B-20 mixture, which is also available to the public at Haycock Petroleum's facility at Washington and A Streets.

Users maintain the higher mix of biofuel is better for vehicles than straight diesel fuel.

"We've been believers for a long time, says Dan Hyde, Fleet and Transportation Services Manager for the city of Las Vegas. "We wouldn't use anything else,"

Auto manufacturers have been a little slower to come around, however, and will not currently provide warranty work to cars that use the 20 percent mixture.

Saxon said he understands the caution of auto companies but is confident the industry will eventually recognize the benefits of the product. He also recognizes that petroleum companies are usually seen as the bad guys by the general public.

"To most people, we're the guys who make people pay so much for gas and we understand that," Saxon said.

He hopes that through the company's commitment to finding cleaner, safer energy products that help reduce the dependence on foreign oil, Sinclair can change that thinking. One could argue that their efforts to date have gone a long way toward greasing the wheels for that change.