Editorial Letter Vegetable Oil for Fuel

This is a year old, but still incredibly relevant. 168 words - before our paper went to a 150 word max format...

The biggest headache for every municipality in the country is the budget line item “Fuel”. Prices just keep going up and are forecast to continue until at least 2012.

So why are we still using straight diesel? Bio-diesel is now feasible and will become more economical in the near future. Straight vegetable oil has been FREE since fast food was created.

Local restaurants generally must pay to have it hauled to either the landfill or to another processing plant while all town vehicles running on diesel idle at the red light just across the street.

Conversion kits for diesel engines to burn straight vegetable oil (SVO) would pay for themselves in fewer than 12 months at last year’s prices. What about this year’s? SVO has the same mileage as diesel and better emissions.

Europe has been using this “technology” for over a decade and Canada has for more than 5 years.

Why aren’t we? Call your highway department and ask them. Keep asking them. It’s your money.

Sincerely,