Check out this link for a great bit from Governing. Dallas, TX is using recycled cooking grease to fuel 1,000 buses and save $100,000 in fuel costs. It truly is the greatest example of a win-win situation: waste is kept out of landfills and drains and is converted into fuel, while fuel needs are met far below normal cost. Forget recycling cereal boxes - this is real recycling: making renewable energy out of clean burning waste.
What everyone must keep in mind though is that only old, heavy diesel engines can heat and burn cooking oil as fuel. Buses, trucks, old Mercedes diesels, etc. can do this. A 2009 Golf TDI cannot, and a gasoline engine certainly cannot. Companies around the country can actually convert older diesel vehicles to run on cooking oil full time. In the DC area/Mid-Atlantic, there is Feed My Wheels, and in New England there is Greasecar.
This story may not seem in keeping with this blog's political feel, but in fact it is. Grease (or cooking oil) conversion for diesels is a great way to use and promote the use of renewable energy. It is cheaper than diesel from a gas station, and in some cases may even be free from a restaurant that wants to get rid of it. It also means using older cars (keeping them out of landfills and curbing need to produce new cars), and using a substance which would otherwise go to waste. From a progressive standpoint, this is a very environmentally friendly idea, and from a more conservative stance, grease conversion means curbing spending on foreign petroleum products. Either way, it is a highly effective method of improving air quality and saving money.
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