Dave Eck, a Half Moon Bay, Calif., 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 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 California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, trying to set an example for Californians by driving a Hummer that burns cooking oil, has 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 Los Angeles 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."
