A week ago Thursday, I received an e-mail concerning the station I buy bio-diesel from. It turns out that via mathematical equation they decided it was a better business move for them to switch the bio-diesel tank to diesel. BD costs around a dollar more than diesel… now anyway. I know that gas has been at a dollar a gallon forever, but just wait until the economy rebounds. You think prices were high a few months ago… you do remember a few months ago, right? So they figured out that it makes sense to sell more diesel at a lower price than less BD at a higher price… of course, the majority of us go there for the BD. So this was going to be my first leap into activism and I was going to join my brothers and sisters in bio-fuels in protest and wage an e-mail campaign to the owners. Sunday we borrowed the neighbor’s club card and bought a 5-gallon cube of soybean oil. Since I bought the Mercedes in late August I have been running straight BD 99% (B99), but the pending cut-off of fuel had inspired me out of my complacency. I originally intended to run the car on WVO, but having a clean source of B99 in nearby Brentwood had given me the false sense of security that any fuel is accessible. There was going to be a sister station in the Palisades that would continue selling B99, but that’s further out of my bubble and it started to feel like an inconvenience before I even drove over. I’ve been running on 5 gallons of soybeans all week. The engine actually feels a little “tighter”, if you know what I mean. So I have proven the myth to my own mind: a car can run on vegetable oil. To some of you, this concept is old-hat. To others, it is as slightly mind-boggling to you as it was to me. So I had planned on sending out an e-mail to the OOLYAKOO distribution list mentioning the e-mail campaign to the fuel company at the first part of the week. OOLYAKOO had a show Sunday night and the after-party went until 3 AM, so by the time I sat down to think it was Wednesday and there was another e-mail in my box. It turns out that the company had decided to correct its mistake and begin selling B99 ASAP due to the overwhelming reaction from its customers. I hadn’t even written mine and the movement had already made the move. Who says bio-diesels don’t move fast? So I missed the opportunity to be one of those e-mails, but I can still participate in the victory. The ultimate goal is WVO (waste vegetable oil). I haven’t been as aggressive as I should be in securing my source, but this situation has renewed my efforts. Having run this week on soybean oil has expanded my belief in the possibility. I was reading earlier tonight that B99 is now available again at the station in Brentwood. Enough voices were heard and a corporation changed its position. Power to the people... FYI – I had read a disturbing article about how the need for bio-diesel was causing an expansion of the acreage devoted to the production of palm oil that was encroaching on the land of orangutans and could cause extinction to many species. It was a small comfort to learn that B99 provided in this area is produced in the mid-West of the U.S. Some would argue that these crops could go to food production and I won’t argue the point. We could all lay off the fried foods a bit, don’t you think? Regardless, there is an abundantly renewable resource that could help ease the burden. Farmers that are thinking ahead are pushing for changes in legislation. Many states in the union and the Nation as a whole could benefit from the repeal of hemp prohibition. Boycott palm oil from other countries. Vote hemp*.