July 24, 2012 at 4:08 PM ET Those car tires you kick someday may
be made from soybeans. Goodyear is working on tires made at
least partially of soybean oil instead of petroleum-based oil.
In addition to reducing Goodyear's petroleum consumption for
tires, soy-oil tires have longer tread life and may reduce
Goodyear factories' energy use, the company said. Goodyear
researchers have found the treads on the new tires last 10
percent longer. The tires require less energy to make at the
factory because soy-made rubber blends more readily into the
tire. A synthetic rubber tire contains about 5 gallons of
petroleum-based oil, according to the Rubber Manufacturers
Assocation, but Goodyear doesn't say how much of that will get
replaced by soybean oil. The company does say it thinks the new
tires may reduce its petroleum consumption by as much as 7
million gallons a year. That's about as much petroleum as 8,000
American drivers might use in a year, as calculated from data
from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Arg