Willie's the man!

I like trees. I like grass. I like the lazy sun rising over outstretched limbs of tall pine trees early in the morning. The fact that Houston is becoming more and more of a concrete paradise surely doesn't help my lack of desire to be in this city. The bigger slap in the face is that I haven't found one hint of concern from any community about the unending sprawl that is increasingly stealing any natural beauty this area once had. In fact, in my eyes Houston is simply the gas-guzzling Hummer of the U.S., tearing up everything it crosses.

Texas is oil. There are few other reasons why any city in Texas would have been developed if oil was not present. I like my vehicles with high efficiency and low emissions. Texans don't seem to care. The bigger the better. Now, you can imagine why surprise last Sunday morning when I came across a morning show discussing a town outside of Dallas named Carl's Corner. It's a very small town, established only so one man, Carl, could set up a truck stop along a major highway. The town hasn't grown much over the years but it has become a haven for truckers making their way slowly across the long Texas countryside. Sadly, the man has encountered many hardships in his life, including the loss of three sons. During this time of crisis he was visited by a very special man who was able to convince him that the truckstop made a difference in the lives of every truckdriver who came on down the road. That man was Willie Nelson.

I bet you didn't know that Willie Nelson has a tour bus that is fueled by something called biodiesel. This is a type of diesel gas created through a chemical process starting with vegetable oil and/or animal fat. Yes, Willie Nelson is a die hard hippie. He understands the criticality of eliminating our dependence on foriegn oil by creating our own renewable fuels. This is a fuel that would reduce emissions of tractor trailers, or any deisel vehicle, by signficant amounts without the need to alter the vehicle to support the fuel! Let me restate that. One of the enormous obstacles of the so-called hydrogen economy is creating an infrastructurde that can actually support it. Forget about the technological barriers we face right now to even use hydrogen to power our vehicles, we can't even create or distribute it efficiently currently. On the other hand, we have at our disposal a fuel that can be mixed with petroleum-based deisel or used by itself in vehicles currently on the road without any modifications.

I don't believe that biodiesel is the answer to our problems but I do think it's a start. In fact, I can't think of any reason to not produce this stuff on a mass scale and distribute it thoughout the U.S. to put at truckers' disposal. Why aren't we doing it? Not to sound like a conspiracy theorest, but I'm thinking that it has something to do with the oil lobby. How could they possibly benefit from this? We're not talking about some type of alternative petroleum product. This is something that's going to come out of our farms and restaurants (yes, used cooking oil can be converted to biodiesel). The petroleum industry has a lot to lose if biodeisel gets a foothold in the economy. I can only hope that the needs and desires of the consumers will be strong enough to overcome any pressure this industry can put on Congress and the gas stations.

Spread the word. We still have hope. The oil industry will one day be a shadow of what it is today and for once the U.S. will have it's independence on foreign oil reduced significantly and our farmers will once again play a central role in the strength of this country.