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State regulations force vendors to switch to petroleum-based fuels for now, driving green motorists to distraction.
By Judith Lewis
July 26, 2009
It was a fine June day in 2007 when a senator from Illinois, then a long-shot for the presidency, stood beside the pumps at Conserv Fuel in West Los Angeles and congratulated the heroes of the biofuel revolution. Conserv Fuel was one of the first fueling stations in the country to offer biofuel at the pump, and Barack Obama was looking to establish himself as an alternative-fuel-friendly candidate. He railed against the Bush administration’s oil-centric energy policy. He commended Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for establishing a low-carbon fuel standard. He described the man who brought biofuels to Conserv Fuel, Kris Moller, as a fearless warrior for the planet who went to work while Washington fiddled.
“Folks like Kris are part of a grass-roots movement that’s making American greener right now,” Obama concluded. “He’s way ahead of Washington.”
Oh, how long ago that day seemed last month when I drove my diesel-powered 2002 Volkswagen into the Conserv Fuel station for a fill-up. I bought the little green Bug four years ago to run exclusively on biodiesel. The fuel, made from vegetable oil or animal fat, works in diesel engines just as well as diesel made from petroleum, and it requires no modifications to the machine.
I’d been a regular at Conserv Fuel ever since I bought the car, but on that June day, the station attendant tried to head me off: “No more! No more!” he shouted, waving his hands. When I got closer, I saw what the fuss was about: The biodiesel pump had a shiny new sign on it: “Diesel #2.”
The man pointed at a letter taped to the inside of the window. It said that Conserv Fuel would no longer sell the sweet-smelling, cleaner-burning fuel on which I’d come to depend. My local fueling station’s flirtation with biodiesel was over. I put enough stinky fossil-fuel diesel in my tank to get home and drove off, shamefully chugging soot all the way…...