George,

George Allen's ideas constitute a collection of "old economy" proposals that support the energy status quo while continuing the enslavement of the middle and lower orders to ever rising energy prices. I don't know what we do about our dependence on electricity. But in the area of passenger vehicles, there are very simple ideas--relatively low in cost-- that get us much farther than either Allen's highly polluting proposals or the highly expensive new technology fixes (hybrid, electric, hydrogen) that are out of reach of a lot of Americans, including me.

For example, switchgrass and industrial hemp are both rich sources of biodiesel fuel. Al Weed was roundly mocked for his switchgrass proposals--but he was just a man ahead of his times. As for hemp, Virginia used to be part of an industrial hemp belt that stretched roughly from here to Indiana. Conceivably, with the right kinds of enabling legislation (because it's, I believe, illegal most places) and incentives, there could be a network of biodiesel farms/processing facilities producing local fuel for local people. Can you imagine that? We could slash emissions, create jobs, and give the finger to Middle Eastern oil magnates all in one fell swoop. But except for a few states, Alaska and Michigan are two I've read about, we're not doing that.

Why isn't Virginia, with the resources available through Virginia Tech, at the forefront of this? Perhaps because people like George Allen are rigidly and exclusively focused on oil drilling off our shores. But biodisel is already here. There are thousands of fleet vehicles--school and city buses, farm and mining vehicles, and more--that are running on biodiesel right here in Virginia and West Virginia, but except for a flurry of flex-fuel talk a few years ago nobody's talking about how regular people can get on the bandwagon.

That's not stopping creative individuals. I have a friend who's converted his and his wife's cars (a diesel Jetta and Bug) to run on vegetable oil. The kit cost $1,000. He did the labor himself. And the costs for filtration units (which I researched on line a couple of days ago) seem to average around $800-$900. The vegetable oil he gets for free from Five Guys, which would otherwise have to pay someone to cart it away and dispose of it.

So let's say the initial outlay is around $3,000. Well, I spend $50 on gas every time I fill up and fill up every 10 days. So making this move would basically pay for itself in around a year and a half for me. So I'm looking into it seriously. There are a surprising number of automakers (most not American, not surprisingly) that have models that run on diesel: Audi, BMW, Daimler/Chrysler, Ford, GM, Isuzu, Land Rover, Mazda, Mercedes, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Peugeot, Saab, Toyota, VW, and Volvo. Any of these can be converted.

So put the word out folks. I'm in the market for a used diesel car or truck in good condition. And then I plan to make friends with a restauranteur who does a lot of frying. Got any ideas? --

Kendra Hamilton (Electronic mail, December 16, 2011)