June 23, 2008 7:25 AM
Every two weeks, Mark Nagurney, who lives in Laurel, Maryland, stops by his local chinese restaurant and picks up several 4.5 gallon plastic jugs filled with used VEGETABLE OIL. He empties them into his 1996 Volkswagon Passat which he overhauled last year for $2,500 to make it run on the slimy stuff.
But according to Tom Pelton who wrote about it in Sunday’s BALTIMORE SUN, this CHEAP fuel comes at a HEFTY COST. Pelton says the state of Maryland requires drivers to get a “SPECIAL FUEL” license even if they are using old, discarded, vegetable oil to power their cars. Maryland drivers also have to obtain a $1,000 BOND from an INSURANCE COMPANY, FILE MONTHLY FORMS and PAY THE SAME 24 CENTS PER GALLON TAX as DRIVERS GOING TO THE GAS STATION TO FILL UP ON DIESEL HAVE TO PAY.
And that’s not all. Catherine C. Milbourn, of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency told reporter Pelton that FEDERAL LAWS PROHIBIT RUNNING VEHICLES ON USED VEGETABLE OIL. “VEGETABLE FUEL HAS NOT BEEN REGISTERED AS A MOTOR VEHICLE FUEL.” She says it has not been tested to determine whether burning it will harm the environment. Milbourn also told the paper that “GARAGES or COMPANIES that CONVERT VEHICLES to run on VEGETABLE OIL CAN BE SUBJECT TO FEDERAL FINES of $32,500 PER VIOLATION, and the CUSTOMERS can face fines up to $2,750.”