When country music star Keith Urban rolled into Rochester for a Sunday night concert, he traveled with a crew of 75 in dozens of vehicles. Most of those vehicles are green powered, and were filled up by a local company.

Urban made the conversion to biodiesel about three years ago.

"It's a good idea to help the environment,” said Dan Fisher, Urban’s lead truck driver. “It was his thought and he wanted to do it. It was easy enough to set up and we're finding more and more fuel and it's easier to get now. It's working out good for us."

And it works out well for local companies such as Northern Biodiesel of Ontario. The Wayne County based firm got the fueling contract for Urban's Rochester stop. Teaming with Samson Fuel, Northern Biodiesel provided 2,500 gallons to refuel Urban's fleet.

"This is the type of thing we really need,” said John Vavalo, vice president of sales and marketing for Northern Biodiesel. “We want to get publicity out there. I'd say the majority of Rochester doesn't even know that the only biodiesel production facility in New York State is pretty much in Rochester, New York. So that's a good thing for us."

All 13 trucks Urban brought to Rochester run on biodiesel. Cortland native Mike DaSilva is responsible for finding biodiesel for the tour. He said it was quite difficult when they first made the conversion, but refueling is much easier now.

"There's a web site out there, then my office gives me the information then they call me with who's filling the trucks up,” DaSilva explained. “They call me and we say how many gallons we need and what time they'll show up to fuel the trucks."

DaSilva says biodiesel is scarce in West Virginia but plentiful in most other states. Advances in technology have made the fuel more readily available.

"Over the last couple of years you really have seen the push, money toward the industry for improvements,” Vavalo said. “It started with virgin oils like soy bean oils, now it progressed to what we use, used cooking oil or choice white grease."

The fill-up Urban's fleet received in Rochester Sunday morning will get the crew to its next stop: Little Rock, Arkansas.

Keith Urban Tour