By DALE HILDEBRANT, Farm & Ranch Guide
Friday, August 15, 2008 11:05 AM CDT

GRAND FORKS, N.D. - When considering biodiesel production, camelina
appears to be the Cinderella crop, according to information presented at
the recent Bio-Mass ‘08 Technical Workshop in Grand Forks.

In recent months biodiesel production has decreased in the U.S. because
of high prices for soybean and canola oil, the two main oils currently
used in biodiesel processing, since the oil from both of these seeds is
in high demand in the food industry.

At the present time, about 90 percent of the oil used in biodiesel is
soy oil and the other 10 percent is canola oil. But the biodiesel
production capacity of the U.S., which is 2.5 billion gallons per year,
isn’t being fully utilized with production last year of only 500 million
gallons.

However, Duane Johnson the vice president for agricultural development
at Great Plains Oil and Exploration in Big Fork, Mont., thinks camelina,
which is sometimes called “false flax” could return profit to the
bio-diesel industry and thus spur further growth.

For example, at the current market prices, soybean oil feedstock costs
$5.25 a gallon and the feedstock price is about 80 percent of the final
product cost, making the final cost of a gallon of biodiesel
approximately $6.60, which is a figure well above the current price of
diesel fuel.

Johnson also noted that converting good grade vegetable oil such as
soybean and canola oil is adding to the backlash over food versus fuel,
a debate that is currently taking place world-wide. Since camelina is an
industrial oil, not a food grade oil, using it as a feedstock for
bio-diesel would lessen that argument.

Using figures prepared by various agencies back in 2003, Johnson
provided the following comparison for using oil crops grown in North
Dakota for biodiesel. Even though the growing costs per acre and the
cost per gallon of the oil are considerably higher, the following data
provides a good comparison between the various oil crops in regards to
bio-diesel production.

Raising camelina could also be an economic plus for farmers in the more
arid areas of the northern Great Plains.

Alice Pilgeram has been working with camelina research for the past
several years at Montana State University and claims the crop can
provide growers with a high value crop with relatively low input costs.
Production acreage in Montana has increased from just 450 acres in 2004
to between 20,000 to 40,000 acres planted this year.

Several other states, including North Dakota, are currently raising
camelina and looking at expanding acreage in the future.

When it comes to fuel production, biodiesel is the most efficient form
of alternative fuels, according to Johnson. In terms of gasoline and
diesel fuel production, for each calorie expended in the extraction and
manufacture of these products we recover 0.8 calories of energy. Ethanol
production returns 1.1 calories for each calorie expended, but for
biodiesel, for each calorie expended 3.5 to 5.2 calories of energy are
recovered.

And, camelina is a superior oil when it come to biodiesel. The oil
contains a high amount of linolenic fatty acid, which usually leads to a
short oil life before it turns rancid. However, the camelina oil also
contains a high level of vitamin E that serves as an anti-oxidant and
extends the oil’s shelf life.

The high linolenic content is important to biodiesel production, since
it gives the product a pour point of around -15 degrees Fahrenheit,
which is considerably lower than the other oils offer and is important
for users in this region of the country.

Pilgeram also noted that at least five biodiesel companies in Montana
will be utilitzing camelina oil in 2008.

Agronomically, camelina is an ideal crop for this region, since it
produces well with about 10 inches of rain and requires a low rate of
fertilization and pesticide use, and does well on marginal land, Johnson
explained.

“We can get maximum yield with up to 10 inches of rainfall,” he said.
“After that we start having disease problems.”

Johnson claims the biodiesel industry needs to look to a new generation
of feedstocks if it is going to be successful.

“The future of biodiesel is going to be what happens in the next
generation,” he said. “Right now all of the oilseeds that we use to make
biodiesel, whether it be soybeans, sunflower, canola or mustard, are
competing against a world food market. We need to start looking at
non-food crops, or the next generation of crops, for biodiesel production.”

These next generation crops should be lower in cost, because they aren’t
competing for food use. These sources include using algae, where the
technology is five to 10 years away, the tropical plant jatropha, which
is three to seven years away, and camelina, where the technology is here
now.

Camelina has one more advantage - a meal by-product that can be
successfully used in beef, dairy, poultry and fish rations. Cold-pressed
camelina meal contains a residual oil of 8 to 11 percent and this oil
contains 34 to 38 percent omega 3 fatty acids and very high levels of
vitamin E.

The meal is also an excellent source of protein and is very low in ash
content.

Beef feeding trials are currently underway at Montana State University
that show feedlot daily rates of gain were higher with a ration
containing 3.5 percent camelina meal than rations containing 3.5 and 7.0
percent soybean meal.

It may have been dubbed “false flax” in the past, but many feel there is
nothing false about the future of camelina as one of the new sources for
biodiesel production.

http://www.farmandranchguide.com/articles/2008/08/15/ag_news/production_news/duc14.txt

Valley Biodiesel formerly Silicon Valley Biodiesel has decided to stop building its 1.2 million gallon plant in Sanger, California near Fresno. Escalating construction costs are cited as the reason. Delays in construction and increases in feedstock costs have put new biodiesel plants in jeapordy, most do not have enough oil to be near capacity.
—————————————————————————-
Biodiesel company pulls out of Sanger
The Fresno Bee06/30/08 22:30:28
A startup company has pulled out of plans to build a $1.5 million biodiesel plant in Sanger.
Valley Biodiesel Inc. won’t build its biofuel test plant in Sanger because of delays in getting permits and increasing construction costs, Walt Bacharowski, company president, said Monday.

Bacharowski intended to open a 1.2 million gallon-per-year test plant that would convert used restaurant grease and other vegetable and animal fats into biodiesel.

read more | digg story

Autotopia Biofuels(San Mateo), Dogpatch Biofuels(San Francisco), and Biofuel Oasis(Berkeley) are establishing a consortium to help improve pricing, government regulations and public opinion.
——————————————————————
Austin Mader-Clark’s new fueling station and convenience store in San Mateo is in the red, yet she makes time to confer with her competition weekly.

That collaboration is critical to the success of the fledgling industry, she said.

Three women-owned biodiesel stations — Mader-Clark’s Autopia Biofuels LLC, BioFuel Oasis Cooperative Inc. in Berkeley and Dogpatch Biofuels Cooperative Inc. in San Francisco — are establishing a consortium that could help them improve pricing, government regulation and public opinion.

“We see each other as infrastructure,” said Mader-Clark, who opened Autopia Biofuels in May. “If people aren’t using biodiesel, it can be hard to get them to start. But if they know biodiesel is available everywhere they go, more people will start using it.”

Michele Swiggers, co-owner of Dogpatch Biofuels, said she has never encountered this level of cooperation among competitors.

“It helps make everyone stronger,” she said.

Buying in bulk
In recent weeks, biodiesel has been priced competitively with petroleum-based diesel, both hovering between $5 and $6 per gallon. Customers have traditionally bought biodiesel for environmental reasons, but the price parity is expanding the market to first-time customers looking to save money, Mader-Clark said.

Autopia Biofuels sold 3,000 gallons in its first six weeks but will need to sell 10,000 a month to break even, Mader-Clark said. She added a convenience store with organic snacks and products to boost revenue.

Costs are high in the new industry because suppliers are facing start-up expenses, Mader-Clark said.

One of her suppliers charges $2,200 to deliver any amount of fuel, so local stations sharing shipments could mean lower prices for the consumer, she said.

Currently, there is only one government-approved fuel dispenser for pure biodiesel use, and it costs $11,000. The trio is trying to negotiate with a different manufacturer to obtain approval for a similar dispenser that costs less than $3,000.

“We approached the manufacturer and said, ‘There’s three of us in the Bay Area willing to buy your dispenser. Can you put money forward to do testing to get it certified?’” said Swiggers, whose station is still in the permitting process and is looking to buy two dispensers. “They were quite receptive.”

The stations also help each other navigate state and local agencies, said Melissa Hardy, one of the five worker-owners of BioFuel Oasis, which is moving to a bigger site in the fall.

“Dogpatch shared a lot with us about the building-permit process,” Hardy said. “We chose a lot of the things they used so no one’s reinventing the wheel.”

Building an industry
The three stations sell biodiesel made from used cooking oil, which is chemically treated and filtered before use. Pure biodiesel is nonflammable and reduces harmful emissions of hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide.

Swiggers said many consumers confuse biodiesel with corn-based ethanol, which can negatively affect carbon emissions and the global food supply.

One of the first steps to establishing a market, she said, is explaining who can use the fuel.

Pure biodiesel can invalidate some vehicle warranties, but many vehicles built since 2000 don’t require modifications to use it. In older vehicles, its solvency can corrode rubber fuel lines and loosen deposits that clog filters. In cold weather, biodiesel can form wax crystals and reduce fuel economy.

Used cooking oil is one of the best fuels for the environment, but it’s on the fringe of the biofuel industry because many consumers don’t understand its benefits, said Jon Guice, head of research and co-founder of AltaTerra Ltd., a Palo Alto-based research firm focused on green business and cleantech.

Area biodiesel stations are more likely to build a market for their products if they consolidate efforts to educate consumers, Guice said.

“Biodiesel is a very new, very nascent field,” Guice said. “Collaboration makes perfect sense to me. It is much more likely to take off as an industry if there are more of them, and there will be more of them if they can make the price and logistics work.”

Long-term prospects
Berkeley’s BioFuel Oasis opened nearly five years ago and has found some success, Hardy said. The station is profitable and will move from its small, warehouse site into a historical filling station on Ashby Avenue in the fall.

As business grew, members of the cooperative discussed ways to encourage more drivers to use biodiesel. The simple answer was more filling stations, but the owners didn’t want to open other Bay Area locations, Hardy said.

“This is our community. It’s where we want to run our business,” Hardy said. “No one wanted to open a franchise elsewhere, so we discussed what we could do to support more stations to open without being in the traditional business model of franchising.”

BioFuel Oasis held a weeklong class in February 2007 to teach 12 applicants how to open biodiesel stations in areas outside Berkeley. The only student to open a station so far is Mader-Clark in San Mateo.

Patrick Cook, director of the Silicon Valley Small Business Development Center, said this collaboration is necessary for the stations to survive initially, but the cooperation could become counterproductive when the market reaches critical mass.

Hardy said that time is still far away. BioFuel Oasis is planning another how-to class for potential station owners next February and is encouraging new waste vegetable oil plants to open to meet the growing demand.

“There’s not enough waste vegetable oil to replace the fuel for every diesel engine that’s running on petroleum diesel in the country,” Hardy said. “Biodiesel is a transition fuel. We are looking at this as one solution among many, such as encouraging customers to drive less, to bicycle and to localize their lives.”

EMMA RITCH can be reached at 408.299.1830 or eritch@bizjournals.com.

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ASTM approves new biodiesel blend standards

by Susanne Retka Schill
June 25th

New ASTM standards for biodiesel were approved June 19 at an ASTM International meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia. The changes will take effect within three to five months once the final standards are published.

Three provisions were approved. The conventional petrodiesel specification (ASTM D 975) can now contain up to 5 percent biodiesel. Don Scott, technology and regulatory engineer for the National Biodiesel Board, said the updated standard means No. 2 diesel can now include B5 and still be considered the same fuel without labeling the blend.

The second change added a cold filtration test to the B100 specification (ASTM D 6751). The additional test should assure buyers that the B100 won’t contain certain precipitates that can cause filter plugging in cold weather. While there was initial concern about the additional cold filtration test, Scott said, “Everyone’s comfortable they can meet the specs, and the biodiesel will be a better product.”

The third change created specifications for blends between B6 and B20 for on- and off-road diesel. The new specifications will allow the testing of a biodiesel blend against the ASTM numbers for physical verification of quality, rather than relying solely upon the paperwork, Scott explained. The new ASTM standards will also provide original engine manufacturers (OEM) with specifications for engine testing, possibly resulting in OEM approval of higher blends. Nearly all major automakers in the United States currently accept the use of at least B5, while Cummins, New Holland and Caterpillar are already accepting B20 or higher, according to the NBB. Several more companies are expected to raise their acceptance to B20 with the approval of the new standards.

“It is quite remarkable that the big oil companies and engine makers on the committee have now joined forces with the biodiesel industry to help approve these standards,” said Steve Howell, chairman of the ASTM Biodiesel Task Force. Howell was presented with an award of appreciation from ASTM for his dedication in leading the effort at the Vancouver meeting.

More than five years of research and consultation with the ASTM fuel experts went into the new standards. “We addressed the issues and concerns with solid, scientific research,” said Joe Jobe, chief executive officer of the NBB. “Without the tremendous amount of scientific data provided by independent organizations like Southwest Research Institute, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the Coordinating Research Council and others, and the cooperation of the petroleum and engine communities, this would not have been possible.”

Published: 05/29/2008  |  Updated: 05/29/2008
Published By: Communications and Public Outreach

Mayor Gavin Newsom today announced the receipt of a $1 million California Energy Commission (CEC) grant to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) to build the City’s first pilot grease-to-biodiesel production facility. The facility will be sited at the SFPUC’s Oceanside Sewage Treatment Plant, and is considered unique because it will attempt to create three grades of biodiesel from “brown grease”, which are pan scrapings and washed oil residue trapped in grease traps/interceptors under a restaurant sink. There are more than 2.5 million gallons of brown grease in the city, compared with 1.5 million gallons of “yellow grease” like fryer oil. Biodiesel from grease is easily created using the cleaner yellow grease, while brown grease is typically discarded at sewage treatment plants.

“Our program to turn waste cooking oil and yellow grease into biodiesel has been an enormous success, but San Francisco must continue to raise the bar when it comes to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and exploring alternative energies,” said Mayor Newsom. “With this grant, our unique brown-grease-to-biodiesel plant will break new ground for sustainable fuel production in California and serve as a model for the entire state.”
Brown grease can be refined and created into three “grades” of biodiesel:

• High-grade American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) certified biodiesel for
  vehicles;

• Lower grade biofuel source for running sewage treatment plant diesel plant turbines and
  pumps; and

• Rich energy for cogeneration – the process of capturing methane gas at the sewage plant and converting that to heating/electrical needs.

The CEC is looking closely at this and similar projects to help cover California’s anticipated one billion gallon shortfall of biodiesel by 2022. The shortfall is anticipated even with a growing number of yellow grease recycling programs like the SFGreasecycle, which the City launched in November 2007 to collect yellow grease from restaurants to fuel City vehicles, buses and fire trucks. The SFPUC, which manages the SFGreasecycle program, will also manage the brown grease pilot project. The construction of the brown grease biodiesel facility should be complete in December 2008.

“Sewage treatment plants account for 3% of the nation’s electrical consumption because they run 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” said SFPUC General Manager Ed Harrington, “This brown-grease to biodiesel project is a win-win for our ratepayers and the environment. We’ll keep more grease out of the sewers AND reduce our reliance on outside energy sources for our treatment plants.”

SF Public Utilities Commission

All content © copyright 2000-2008

May 30, 2008

By SUSAN SAULNY

The bandit pulled his truck to the back of a Burger King in Northern California one afternoon last month armed with a hose and a tank. After rummaging around assorted restaurant rubbish, he dunked a tube into a smelly storage bin and, the police said, vacuumed out about 300 gallons of grease.

The man was caught before he could slip away. In his truck, the police found 2,500 gallons of used fryer grease, indicating that the Burger King had not been his first fast-food craving of the day.

Outside Seattle, cooking oil rustling has become such a problem that the owners of the Olympia Pizza and Pasta Restaurant in Arlington, Wash., are considering using a surveillance camera to keep watch on its 50-gallon grease barrel. Nick Damianidis, an owner, said the barrel had been hit seven or eight times since last summer by siphoners who strike in the night.

“Fryer grease has become gold,” Mr. Damianidis said. “And just over a year ago, I had to pay someone to take it away.”

Much to the surprise of Mr. Damianidis and many other people, processed fryer oil, which is called yellow grease, is actually not trash. The grease is traded on the booming commodities market. Its value has increased in recent months to historic highs, driven by the even higher prices of gas and ethanol, making it an ever more popular form of biodiesel to fuel cars and trucks.

In 2000, yellow grease was trading for 7.6 cents per pound. On Thursday, its price was about 33 cents a pound, or almost $2.50 a gallon. (That would make the 2,500-gallon haul in the Burger King case worth more than $6,000.)

Biodiesel is derived by processing vegetable oil or animal fat with alcohol. It is increasingly available around the country, but it is expensive. With the right kind of conversion kit (easily found on the Internet) anyone can turn discarded cooking oil into a usable engine fuel that can burn on its own, or as a cheap additive to regular diesel.

“The last time kids broke in here they went for the alcohol,” said Mr. Damianidis, who fries chicken wings and cheese sticks. “Obviously they’re stealing oil because it’s worth something.”

While there have been reports of thefts in multiple states, law enforcement officials do not compile national statistics and it remains unclear whether this is part of a passing trend or something more serious.

The suspects in a growing number of grease infractions fall into a range of categories, people interviewed on the matter said, as grease theft is a crime of opportunity. They include do-it-yourself environmentalists worried about their carbon footprints, warring waste management firms trying to beat each other on the sly, and petty thieves who are profiting from the oil’s rising value on the black market.

“It’s a new oddity,” said Officer Seth Hanson of the Federal Way Police Department, near Tacoma, Wash. He said thefts occur outside at least a couple of restaurants there each week. “We’re trying to get an eyeball on how well-organized it is, if at all. To date, we haven’t been very successful in finding anybody.”

Thefts have been reported in at least 20 states, said Christopher A. Griffin, whose family owns Griffin Industries, one of the largest grease collection and rendering companies in the country. The problem has gotten so bad, Mr. Griffin has hired two detectives to investigate thefts around the country.

“Theft is theft,” said Mr. Griffin, who is based in Cold Spring, Ky. “I don’t care if you’re stealing grease or if you’re stealing diamonds.”

Fryer oil from a restaurant that does a high volume of frying one kind of food — for example, a fried-chicken chain — is at a premium because of its relative purity. The large-scale producers of grease, restaurants mostly, own their old oil and in recent months have even made a small profit by selling it to collectors.

Because of the grease’s rancid odor, most restaurants usually store it out back with the trash.

“Once you put something in the trash, it’s abandoned property,” said Jon A. Jaworski, a lawyer in Houston who represents accused grease thieves. “A lot of times, it’s not theft.”

Even so, most restaurant owners and grease collectors say that grease is not free for the taking.

“There’s a new fight for the product, definitely a whole new demand sector,” said Bill Smith, a market reporter for Urner Barry’s Yellow Sheet, an industry newsletter that tracks yellow grease. “Grease theft is becoming a bigger and bigger issue.”

In the case of the Burger King theft, in Morgan Hill, Calif., the police were alerted to suspicious activity by a neighbor who runs his own grease collection and recycling business and is on the lookout for rustlers.

Driving through town, the neighbor, Mark Rosenzweig, said he spotted the suspect’s truck because “it stuck out.” He said he followed it for blocks before it pulled into the Burger King. Mr. Rosenzweig said he knew the man who holds the Burger King grease account, so he called him.

“I had to give everybody a roadside tutorial on grease theft,” Mr. Rosenzweig said of his next call — to the police. “Ten years ago we couldn’t give this stuff away. Now everybody’s fighting over it.”

The suspect in the case, a 49-year-old man who said he was from Las Vegas, has yet to enter a plea, and is due in court next in July.

A typical fast-food restaurant produces 150 to 250 pounds of grease a week. Many do not even know when a theft occurs because it usually happens overnight. Most security cameras and night watchmen are focused on cash registers, not the trash.

“Who do you go after?” said Jason Christensen, a trader of fats and oils for the AgriTrading Corporation, in Minnesota. “I sense you’ll start seeing more surveillance equipment put in to monitor these storage facilities at the restaurant. As the price goes up, you can afford to spend a little more to protect your interest.”

And there is so much interest in grease these days.

The City of San Francisco has its own grease recycling program run through the Public Utilities Commission called SFGreasecycle, which collects discarded vegetable oil from city restaurants at no charge and recycles it into biodiesel for use in the city fleet.

Healy Biodiesel, a company in Sedgwick, Kan., says it offers a top-quality fuel made from local cooking oils.

Ben Healy, the owner, has contracts to collect the raw grease from several franchises around town.

“One particular night not too long ago, 9 out of 15 were stolen,” he said of the grease bins. “That’s a majority of the oil and it was a big kick in the stomach.”

At Olympia Pizza and Pasta, Mr. Damianidis, who now sells his grease for a small monthly fee, finds the problem of stolen fryer oil quite annoying and distracting. And he wants to stop the thefts. He is leaning toward a security camera and hoping for the best.

“I cook food,” Mr. Damianidis said. “I’m not going to stay up until 2 in the morning trying to catch someone stealing a barrel of grease.”

By Cindy Snyder, For Farm & Ranch Guide

BURLEY, Idaho - Alternative crops tend to grab headlines when commodity prices are low and producers are interested in finding crops with a better profit margin. It’s a harder sell when grain prices are near historic highs, but one alternative crop is gaining attention thanks to it’s adaptation for dryland production.

Camelina probably isn’t dominating the conversation at coffee shops, but researchers are starting to give this oilseed a closer look.

Juliet Windes, University of Idaho Extension crop management specialist at Idaho Falls, said she’s been impressed with what she’s seen.

“I think it could be competitive in areas with cold temperatures and a short growing season,” she told grain growers during the annual UI cereal school in Burley this winter.

An area like Soda Springs, where growers have been locked into continuous grain rotations for up to 20 years, comes to mind. Pivot corners may be another good option.

Montana planted about 50,000 acres of camelina last year. Oregon could provide a market for biodiesel made from camelina. The Portland City Council began requiring a 5 percent biodiesel blend for all diesel fuel sold within city limits starting in July 2007. That rises to a 10 percent blend in July 2010.

The state of Oregon has also enacted a Renewable Fuels Initiative that mandates the use of biofuels.

Tim Parker, president of Willamette Biomass Processors, Inc., also spoke at cereal school. Rather than making biofuels, his Salem, Ore.-based company is focusing on providing a place for farmers to bring oilseeds that can be crushed and then sold to a biodiesel plant.

While growers would like to be paid 25 cents a pound to raise camelina, they won’t pay $8 per gallon for biodiesel.

“We’ve got to find something that’s profitable for you, the grower, but still profitable for the processor,” he said.

That’s one reason he’s excited about camelina. The oilseed can grow in regions that receive as little as 6 to 8 inches of annual precipitation and still yield 1,100 to 1,200 pounds per acre. Researchers at the UI Parma Research and Extension Center got 1,950 pounds per acre off some irrigated plots, showing that the crop may also fit some irrigated situations.

Parker estimated growers would pay about $1.60 per bushel to grow camelina.

Fertilizer requirements are minimal, and seed was running $1 per pound plus freight. Seeding rate is 5 lbs. per acre. At the end of January, the market was supporting a price of about $5 per bushel

Because camelina germinates at 38 degrees, it is a very-early-season crop. Parker said growers can lose up to 100 lbs. of yield by planting after March 15.

Windes thinks camelina could be broadcast on frozen ground or sown with minimum surface incorporation.

“You could seed early on frozen ground and let it take advantage of the early-season moisture,” she said.

Diesel owners who switch to cooking grease can run afoul of the law. Just ask the governor.

By Evan Halper, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
May 6, 2008

Dave Eck, a Half Moon Bay mechanic, had attracted a media spotlight with his fleet of vehicles fueled by used fryer grease from a local chowder house. So when Sacramento called, he figured officials wanted advice on promoting alternative fuels.

Not at all. The government rang to notify Eck that he was a tax cheat. He was scolded for failing to get a “diesel fuel supplier’s license,” reporting quarterly how many gallons of grease he burns, and paying a tax on each gallon.

“All of a sudden they nailed me for a road tax,” said Eck, who drives a Hummer converted to run on vegetable oil. “I said, ‘Not a problem. I’ll do my part. But what do I get? At least let me into the carpool lane.’ ”

No such luck. The state offered Eck only a potentially large fine — and not just for failing to pay taxes. He can also get in trouble for carting kitchen grease away from eateries without a license from the state Meat and Poultry Inspection Branch.

Or for not having at least $1 million in liability insurance, in case he spills some of the stuff. Or for not getting permission from the state Air Resources Board to burn fat in the first place.

The regulations are so burdensome that even Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, trying to set an example for Californians by driving a Hummer that burns cooking oil he buys at Costco, had not complied. Schwarzenegger, who has said that the exhaust from his Hummer smells so much like French fries that his passengers get hunger pangs, was unaware that he was required to send Sacramento an 18-cent road tax for every gallon of kitchen oil he burned, according to spokesman Aaron McLear. After The Times raised the issue, McLear said the governor would pay the taxes he owed.

The governor’s staff says it is working on making it easier to drive using vegetable oil without being an outlaw.

“We are very interested in making sure people who have these kinds of vehicles are able to comply as easily as possible,” McLear said.

But environmentalists are frustrated. “It is ridiculous that we live in what is presumed to be one of the greenest states in the nation, yet we have the most antiquated laws to deal with green energy,” said Josh Tickell, an alternative-fuels advocate and filmmaker whose documentary “Fields of Fuel” recently won the audience award at the Sundance Film Festival.

“Everyone I know wants to do the right thing by the law,” he said. “But the state is not set up to even clearly provide information to folks.”

The veggie oil crowd is hardly on the radical fringe anymore. Garages report being overwhelmed with conversion business, and restaurants throughout the Southland are contending with raids on their used-grease tanks.

Advocates say more than 250,000 Americans are running their vehicles on cooking oil, with the biggest concentration in California. Drivers do it for different reasons: to protect the environment, to reduce dependence on foreign oil or to save money. Those using vegetable oil say they do so for as little as $1 a gallon, even though grease yields better mileage than gasoline and about the same as diesel fuel.

Almost all of them are doing it underground. The state tax board has processed fewer than 70 of the required “fuel supplier” licenses, according to a spokeswoman. Most of those are for businesses selling commercial biodiesel, a more mainstream fuel that is typically mixed with as much as 80% petroleum.

State agencies say they have reasons for doing things the way they do. Tax authorities say biofuel drivers need to pay for using California’s roads, just like everyone else, and there is no simple way to collect from those who don’t go to the gas pumps, where road taxes are normally levied.

The meat and poultry agency is worried about toxic spills. Officials with the air board are troubled by kitchen-grease emissions, especially when spewed by vintage diesel Mercedes-Benzes, the make of choice for many vegetable oil converts.

Matthew Tiffany, a 26-year-old student and environmentalist in Monrovia, tried to help some 20 veggie oil drivers go legal and found the task nearly impossible.

Tiffany, who fills his 1981 diesel Mercedes with fryer grease from a neighborhood Japanese restaurant, launched a cooperative called Good Earth Grease Haulers. His mission was to bring veggie oil drivers into the mainstream.

But Good Earth Grease Haulers quickly collapsed, after Tiffany got tangled in red tape trying to help members comply with license requirements.

“They want us to follow all these rules that were set up to regulate people who transport hundreds of gallons a day,” Tiffany said.

He recently appeared before a legislative committee to urge lawmakers to exempt veggie oil users from having to pay for a license after the Meat and Poultry Inspection Branch raised the cost from $75 to $300.

Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale), a rice farmer who is handy with car engines, expressed bewilderment at the hoops Tiffany had to jump through to get permission to transport a few gallons of used fryer grease.

“Why do you even tell anyone you are taking it?” he asked.

Tiffany reminded the assemblyman that it was required by law.

Although most drivers burning kitchen oil have managed to evade enforcement — government agencies say they have handed out few citations — those who attract attention to themselves by promoting the alternative fuel tend to hear from regulators.

Craig Reece, owner of PlantDrive in Berkeley, which sells kits to convert diesel engines to run on vegetable oil, said he got a call from state officials about paying the road tax. He has since been sending the tax forms to all his customers, but he figures only a few are actually registering with the state and keeping logs of how much oil they burn.

“A lot of my customers think this fuel should be exempt from taxes,” he said. “They feel they ought to get something for the climate-change-neutral aspect of it.”

Illinois, North Carolina, Texas, Rhode Island and Indiana have exempted drivers burning kitchen grease from paying such a tax. In North Carolina, the move came at the behest of a state senator who motors around in a small car powered by soybean oil. The legislator said it wasn’t paying the taxes that bothered him so much as the hours required to do the paperwork.

Terry Tamminen, an advisor to Schwarzenegger on energy and environmental policy, acknowledged that California has been slow to adapt.

“When you go through a period of change, there is always a clunkiness to the bureaucracy,” he said.

But he said the state should not overlook the value of alternative-fuel pioneers.

“Our mentality is to look for the next silver bullet” to replace petroleum, Tamminen said by telephone while driving a car fueled by compressed natural gas. “But there is no silver bullet, only buckshot. We are going to need every one of these silver buckshots to be developed as best it can.”

evan.halper@latimes.com