[SusDet Announce] [Fwd: NYT - biodiesel, truckers and Willie Nelson]

[Ursa Minor]

>From the New York Times:

July 5, 2006
On the Road Again, Where Biodiesel Is a Rising Star
By ERIC O'KEEFE

CARL'S CORNER, Tex., July 4 — Soaring fuel costs have many 
consumers curtailing needless driving trips. But not Mike 
Frybarger. Last summer, the 49-year-old independent trucker 
got in his Volvo 770 tractor-trailer, drove for 2½ days and 
logged more than 1,200 miles.

He passed hundreds of service stations, without stopping at 
any of them. Convenience and cheap diesel fuel? He did not 
need them.

Instead, he filled up his truck's 300-gallon tank with 
biodiesel at Carl's Corner, a Texas truck stop that is at 
the center of the nation's growing biodiesel industry.

"I heard about biodiesel on XM Radio," Mr. Frybarger said. 
"Bill Mack has Willie come on his show and actually talk to 
truckers. Before Willie got involved, biodiesel wasn't well 
known. But once Willie got behind it, he brought biodiesel 
to the forefront."

Willie is the musician Willie Nelson. Biodiesel is a fuel 
made by the chemical mixing of alcohol and fats, greases or 
oils from animals or vegetables. Proponents of this 
alternative fuel, including Mr. Nelson, point out that one 
of Rudolf Diesel's first engines was powered by peanut oil. 
But by the time the Model T began rolling off Henry Ford's 
assembly lines, it was powered by petrochemical products, 
not vegetable oils.

In 2002, Mr. Nelson got a complete update on biodiesel from 
a source close to home: his wife, Annie. Ms. Nelson bought a 
Volkswagen Jetta that could run on the fuel and had it 
shipped to their home on Maui.

Mr. Nelson immediately took to the idea of driving such a 
vehicle. "It didn't take him but a minute to figure out how 
much sense it made for family farmers. And if you support 
farmers, you support the nation," Ms. Nelson said.

In a phone interview on Tuesday, Ms. Nelson said: "I had 
done my research, and I bought it specifically because I 
wanted it to run on biodiesel."

She added: "I told the dealer to only put in enough diesel 
to get me from the port to the pump. Since then, for the 
last four years, it's never run on anything but biodiesel."

Now all of the couple's vehicles run on biodiesel: the 
original Jetta, a Mercedes diesel and a Dodge Ram at their 
Maui residence; an Excursion and another Jetta in 
California; and another Mercedes in Texas. "Don't forget the 
tour buses and the all the tractors in Texas," Mr. Nelson said.

The Nelsons have invested in two biodiesel production 
facilities, including one at Carl's Corner, where a grand 
opening took place on Monday. The Dallas Mavericks assistant 
coach, Del Harris, the former Dallas Mavericks head coach, 
Don Nelson, and Carl Cornelius's original partner at the 
truck stop, the Dallas stockbroker, Monk White, are a few of 
the other investors in the plant, which will be run by 
Pacific Biodiesel, the company that fuels the Nelsons' cars 
in Hawaii.

"This is our ninth and largest plant," said Bob King, the 
Pacific Biodiesel president. "Initially, it will produce 
8,000 gallons of biodiesel per day. That comes out to more 
than two million gallons annually. And we have the capacity 
to double production here at Carl's Corner to more than four 
million gallons." Most biodiesel fuels are not pure 
biodiesel, but a blend. According to Mr. King, the mixture 
at Carl's Corner is 20 percent biodiesel, which means the 
truck stop will be capable of selling more than 10 million 
gallons to truckers each year.

That pleases Mr. Frybarger, who is committed to using 
biodiesel whenever possible and routinely logs on to a Web 
site for truckers to pinpoint the location of 
truck-accessible biodiesel retail locations nationwide.

Mr. Frybarger readily admits that Carl's Corner is his 
favorite, particularly over the Independence Day holiday. In 
addition to filling his truck up with biodiesel, he also 
attends Willie's Picnic at Carl's, a weeklong concert that 
culminated Monday night with performances by Ray Benson and 
Asleep at the Wheel, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Ray Price, 
and, of course, Mr. Nelson himself.

Mr. Frybarger said, "Just to hear Willie sing 'I Fly Away' 
is worth a trip by itself."