biofuels | June 26, 2008 |
Alternative Fuel Users Face Fines
Biofuels are gaining popularity — but the government hasn’t managed to catch up. Drivers who use cleaner fuels, like biodiesel from used cooking oil, can face fines, forms and a tangle of bureaucratic rules impossible to sort through.Take the great state of Maryland, for example. If you want to drive a vehicle running on something other than a fuel from a licensed pumping station , you have to do the following:
- Apply for and receive a “special fuel” license
- Obtain a $1,000 bond from an insurance company
- File monthly forms
- Pay a 24 cents per gallon tax — the same amount drivers using diesel pay
If you don’t take those steps within the first month of either purchasing a vehicle that runs on a ‘special fuel’ or converting your vehicle, you face a $1,000 fine. The logic is that the gasoline tax goes to pay for road maintenance and that converting to a fuel other than gasoline shouldn’t get drivers out of their tax burden.
Even after all of that, you may not be driving on the right side of the law. Federal laws still forbid using home-brewed vegetable oil as fuel. In an interview with the Baltimore Sun, Catherine C. Milbourn, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said "All fuels have to be tested before they can be used in a vehicle, because when something goes into the engine and is burned up, something comes out of the tailpipe. And we want to make sure it doesn't harm the environment in any way. Vegetable fuel has not been registered as a motor vehicle fuel."
Drivers running their cars on special fuels face a flat out fine of $2,750 at the federal level. Garages converting vehicles to run on alternative fuels can face federal fines of $32,500 — for each car converted. The EPA has yet to fine anyone who converted their car to run on vegetable oil, but they haven’t ruled the possibility out.
Plenty of companies are successfully selling conversion kits, as well as installing them. Golden Fuel, of Springfield Missouri is one example: they’ve sold hundreds of kits, and have even had to start a waiting list for their product. But, technically, the EPA could shut them down at any moment.
It’s unlikely that will happen, but legislation at both the state and federal level needs to start catching up. Right now, it seems like consumers are willing to try almost anything to pay less at the pump. Considering that many politicians these days also support sustainable advances it makes sense to legalize them.
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Comments By Readers
The best thing we can do is get the government off their drug trip and grow a crop that works. Don't let them lie to you, there is plenty of farm land. We have over 100 million total farm acres in the USA and only use about half. The half that's not being planted is more than enough to grow ALL our fuel. Not only that but the government is still paying farmers not to plant. Watch the video titled "HEMP FUEL Can Supply All Our Energy Needs" and read the article titled "Marijuana Facts The Government Does Not Want You To Know" on the website referenced at the bottom of this post.
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Hemp requires no pesticides, no herbicides, and only moderate amounts of fertilizer.
Source: MARIJUANA AND HEMP THE UNTOLD STORY
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Hemp can produce several different kinds of fuel. In the 1800's and 1900's hempseed oil was the primary source of fuel in the United States and was commonly used for lamps and other oil energy needs. The diesel engine was originally designed to run on hemp oil because Rudolf Diesel assumed that it would be the most common fuel. Hemp is also the most efficient plant for the production of methanol. It is estimated that, in one form or another, hemp grown in the United States could provide up to ninety percent of the nation's entire energy needs.
Source: Schaffer Library of Drug Policy
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Hemp is 4 times more efficient than corn as biofuel. Hemp pellets can be used to produce clean electricity.
... so powerful it could replace every type of fossil fuel energy product (oil, coal, and natural gas).
... This plant is the earth's number one biomass resource or fastest growing annual plant for agriculture on a worldwide basis, producing up to 14 tons per acre. This is the only biomass source available that is capable of producing all the energy needs of the U.S. and the world...
Hemp will produce cleaner air and reduce greenhouse gases. When biomass fuel burns, it produces CO2 (the major cause of the greenhouse effect), the same as fossil fuel; but during the growth cycle of the plant, photosynthesis removes as much CO2 from the air as burning the biomass adds, so hemp actually cleans the atmosphere. After the first cycle there is no further loading to the atmosphere...
Source: USA Hemp Museum
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