Treehugger: Can You Bake a Biodiesel Pie?

Treehugger: In his two-car garage, Kevin Newman is pouring used French fry oil from local restaurants into a pair of General Electric household water heaters - his version of the giant petroleum cracking towers found at an oil company refinery. He deftly moves hoses around, scrubs the impurities from the oil, performs chemical tests, and, voilà, a week later, he is filling-up his pickup truck with biodiesel. He figures his home refinery saves him and his business, which has six trucks, about $1.75 a gallon. "If you can bake a cake, you can make biodiesel," says Mr. Newman.

I met a fellow from Costa Rica last week driving a biodiesel pickup. He said it costs him around 75 cents a gallon to make fuel. When I gave a low whistle he pointed out that in Venezuela, regular gas costs 15 cents a gallon!

-- Paul Andrews, GreenforGood

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