I Heart Biofuels
While this is not exactly a “digital” story–we at AllThingsD.com like to think we have our finger on the pulse of the latest trend, including the lean, mean green one. (We had well-known Silicon Valley VC Vinod Khosla come and talk about alternative energy at D4, in fact.)
Yesterday brought news that Om Malik was going all Al Gore on us with his new Earth2Tech, a blog site “devoted to the business of clean technologies, its innovations and everything else.”
We like what we have read so far (avoid soy biodiesel IPOs, as if they were Pets.com reincarnated–DONE!) and it looks great (nice digital leaf).
Not to be outdone, we made acquaintance with writer Charles Runnette and his veggie Mercedes, whilst on a run to the most excellent Baby Blue Bar-B-Q in Venice, Calif., last night (which was deliciously oily, too).
The car, which has been converted to run on vegetable oil by Lovecraft Bio-Fuels, a popular company that converts diesel cars in the shaggy Silver Lake area of Los Angeles.
I once visited an even shaggier commune right next door to Lovecraft and can still recall the pungent Thai food smell that perpetually wafted out of the place, as its workers toiled at making the world gasoline-free. Mighty tasty, too!
Here’s my video:
Comments
According to “Goss’s Garage,” a regular technical feature of the “Motor Week” tv series, biofuels are not safe for long-term use because of the engine deposits that will build up over time, damaging the engine. The use of biofuels may be a great idea but, unfortunately, it is not yet a viable solution for the average driver.
Posted by Alan Sanders at July 17th, 2007 at 9:10 amIndeed. I neglected to mention sediment, but I was not going for an authoritative piece here.
Posted by Kara Swisher at July 17th, 2007 at 2:20 pmIt probably wouldn’t be too hard to build car engines capable of running safely on a wide variety of alternative energy sources, including biofuels. What is lacking is a national will to reduce our dependence on oil.
Simple human ingenuity is a wonderful thing. Too bad the U.S. government is only interested in protecting the profits of the big oil companies.
Posted by Alan Sanders at July 17th, 2007 at 3:16 pmYes I was going to buy one, but the problem is that they use almost exclusively old cars — built before diesel went out of (and now back into) fashion — which don’t have airbags. Seems an unfortunate dilemma to me since the conscientious environmentalist is so often the conscientious driver as well.
As for the erosion of the engines, all cars suffer damage and wear over time. Most just pollute the environment more than these do before they heave their final exhale.
And yes indeed, human ingenuity is a wonderful thing that the U.S. Government does not value nearly highly enough.
Posted by Felix Martinez at July 17th, 2007 at 6:15 pmYes, Alan, you’d almost think that our leaders had close ties to the oil industry
As to Felix: apparently you must choose between being the conscientious environmentalist and the conscientious driver. I say risk life and limb for the sake of the little birds and woodland animals!
And I wish human ingenuity would solve the problem of cars having to heave their final exhale. It sounds so painful.
Posted by Kara Swisher at July 18th, 2007 at 12:38 am