The New Fuel

Biodiesel: petrol-free and smelling like fries
By Douglas Campbell

Last week, The New Yorker featured an interesting reference to Gov. Sonny Perdue’s decision to repeal the gas tax: “Georgia has already temporarily repealed its gas taxes, and Michigan, Florida and a host of other states are thinking about it,” wrote James Suroweicki, who authors the weekly magazine’s financial page. “Let’s hope they keep thinking.” Suroweicki argued that the gas tax is one of the few taxes that economists widely agree on—it helps to reflect the true cost of gas, the price of protecting oil fields, congestion, pollution and increased risk of accidents. “Of course, in political terms the gas tax’s virtues—simplicity, transparency, immediacy—are vices,” Suroweicki went on. “Politicians prefer complex systems that allow them to satisfy particular constituencies, reward supporters and disguise the true cost of things … But oil crises are going to keep coming, and each new bout of turmoil will show just how expensive our free ride on gasoline has become.”

A driver fills up with biodiesel at the Biofuel Oasis station in Berkeley, Calif earlier this month. There are only four such outlets in the entire state of Georgia. (Photo/David Paul Morris/Getty Images)

When the governor closed down schools on Sept. 26 and 27 to conserve fuel, it drew attention to the embarrassing frailty of the Atlanta psyche when confronted with a possible disruption in gas supplies: We panicked, flocked to the pumps and paid whatever we had to—sans the tax.

The vast majority of Atlanta drivers have few palatable options and since gas was tax-free last month, there hasn’t been a compelling incentive to look for alternatives. Public transit is of limited use to most residents for various reasons, and most of our roads are downright hostile to biking or walking. Carpooling is largely impractical, given the dispersion of downtown workers across the 28-county metropolitan area.

For most people, there is simply no substitute for gasoline. Until we have significant structural change in our society, most of us are doomed to be lashed to the petroleum leviathan like Ahab to Moby Dick.

Atlantans packed into gas stations late last month after Hurricane Katrina sent a fuel scare through the city. “People generally are not willing to embrace new technologies,” says Kris Smith, executive director of Atlanta’s Positive Energy Foundation. “If biofuels, and biodiesel in particular, were well-known to the consumer, readily available and easy to produce, only then would there be wider acceptance.” (Photos/Spark St. Jude and Conal Byrne)

Not just for hippies anymore