Grease Power

Soon after my post about grease thieves, a man affected by the banditry wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times.  Greg Melville, the driver of a grease-powered 1985 Mercedes station wagon, procures his grease on the up and up from a restaurant in this neighborhood.  “Waste oil banditry,” he writes tongue-in-cheek, “makes my own fuel search more difficult.”

Mr. Melville converted his car to “free fuel” a few years ago when gas was around $2.20 a gallon.  For $2,000, he had a 15-gallon tank installed in the back of his wagon that heats the grease he picks up weekly in five-gallon containers.  The wagon, which gets 20 miles per gallon, made it cross country from Vermont to California in six days. 

For all the promise grease holds, Mr. Melville notes that there isn’t enough of it—no matter the number of bandits—to power every car in the country. 

The piece is a definite must read, and a fun read at that. I highly recommend it.

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