Charlotte man converts car to veggie oil, gets fined by state

Links June 11, 2007 Comments: 5

Look, I wish I was making this stuff up. It would at least reassure me that this bullshit does not happen in real life. But it does.

http://www.reflector.com/local/content/gen/ap/NC_Fuel_Flap.html

Bob Teixeira, a Charlotte guitar teacher, took a stand against U.S. dependence on foreign oil last fall and spent $1,200 to convert his 1981 diesel Mercedes to run on vegetable oil. He buys soybean oil in 5-gallon jugs at Costco, which costs him about a third more than diesel.

Despite his good intentions, the state fined Teixeira $1,000 for not paying motor fuel taxes. North Carolina officials also told him that to legally use veggie oil here he’d have to first post a $2,500 bond.

Such penalties have also been levied against other North Carolina drivers whose vehicles were powered by alternative fuels.

5 thoughts on “Charlotte man converts car to veggie oil, gets fined by state”

  1. theconverted June 11, 2007 at 22:14

    I know we don’t see eye to eye on global warming, but man this just shows that the state is the problem, not the solution here.

    Gawd, that is the stupidest thing I have read in a long time. I believe this happened to a couple in Illinois too.

    And Ron Good had a story about 3 months ago about Ontario Hydro (the publicly owned electricity utility in my home province) that jumped on the conservation band wagon – compact fluorescents, AC at 26 etc – and then got a raise in rated because their revenue was down. Their revenue was down because the conservation program was working.

    The Bullshit that happens in real life is stuff we could never make up…

  2. Francois Tremblay June 11, 2007 at 22:17

    I know! I heard about the couple in Illinois too! Similar situation.

    Do you have a URL for that Ontario Hydro story?

  3. Social Memory Complex » Regulation is the name, oligopoly is the game June 12, 2007 at 11:24

    […] Francois Tremblay’s excellent blog I found this outrageous article. I had heard about stuff like this before, but the quote of the […]

  4. theconverted June 12, 2007 at 15:01

    Francois,

    Here it is:

    http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/194785

    My mistake, it was Toronto Hydro, not Ontario Hydro. But its the same thing – public, government run utilities.

  5. Toronto Hydro encourages energy-saving, then raises rates. « Check Your Premises June 17, 2007 at 08:22

    […] 17th, 2007 I recently blogged about the State cracking down on alternate energy sources, and theConverted pointed me to this article about Toronto Hydro. Turns out that Toronto Hydro had […]

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