In a day and age when we are scraping gummy dimes from our ashtrays to try to keep up with rising oil prices, biofuels bring to us a welcome oasis of a steady 3.75 per gallon and with the right hunk o' metal, a good 50-60 miles per gallon. Biofuels come in a few flavors, and there are, of course, the continual "breakthroughs" claiming you can run your car on horse manure or Coca-Cola. The tried and true versions of biofuel are all fundamentally the same, relying only on their production method to determine where they will be used.

From the same vegetable sources, we can glean ethanol, pure veggie oil and biodiesel. Ethanol is merely vegetable alcohol, fermented sugars of vegetable matter. Biodiesel uses either virgin or used restaurant vegetable oil, combined with methanol and lye, both naturally-occurring, which strip the glycerin from the vegetable oil, leaving us with pure biodiesel. The glycerin can be made into soap or composted. Pure veggie oil is true to its name, pure and simple vegetable oil in virgin or recycled form, and will run in diesel engines with some modifications.

For now, let's focus on ethanol and biodiesel. Biodiesel, used in its pure form

(B100, 100% biodiesel) can provide the coveted 50-60 mpg in the right vehicle. Nearly all later-model diesel cars can be filled with B100 with absolutely no modifications. Biodiesel releases significantly less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as gasoline and petroleum diesel when burned, and has none of the toxic additives and other harmful chemicals that are found in petroleum fuels. You could, in theory, even eat it. But don't tell poison control I told you that. Biodiesel is becoming more and more available, especially in California, at a more and more appealing price. two months ago the biodiesel at Yokayo Biofuels here in Ukiah was a solid 45 cents cheaper than the regular unleaded at the Chevron down the road. Besides... it smells like french fries! Need I say more?

Ethanol, or vegetable alcohol, is another option for the petroleum rebel. However, ethanol is much harder to find, and gets only half the mileage that biodiesel can achieve. There is only a spotting of publicly available ethanol pumps in the west. In fact, the National Ethanol Coalition reports only one public fueling station in the state, located in San Diego. Even then, it's only 85% ethanol, mixed with 15% petroleum gasoline.