79 year old veggie oil maker

David Wetzel, 79, makes his own fuel from recycled vegetable oil for his 1986 Volkswagen Golf, gets 46 miles per gallon - pretty neat huh? Well, the Illinois Department of Revenue visited and want him to pay a "motor fuel tax" (retroactively) and he might be hit with a $2,500 bond, a class 3 felony and a lot of other awful stuff - or it might just end up being $244 in taxes for the fuel he made.
State makes big fuss over local couple's vegetable oil car fuel, Thanks NovySan! - Link.

From the pages of MAKE:
Making biodiesel - The best way to learn how to make your own backyard biodiesel is to start with a one-liter batch. It's easy to make a small batch that will work in any diesel engine. You won't need any special equipment--an old juice bottle will serve as the "reactor" vessel--and on such a small scale, you can quickly refine your technique and perform further experiments. MAKE 03- Page 72. Subscribers--read this article now in your digital edition or get MAKE 03 @ the Maker store.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Mar 8, 2007 03:12 PM
DIY Projects, Transportation |
Permalink
| Comments (9)
| Email This |
| Digg this!
Recent Entries
- Best of CRAFT
- Not so lazy Sunday... Weekend Project - Ultimate LED fan sign
- Making Austin Weird: LED Bling
- Brush knuckles
- Found object robot sculptures
- Blob Mentality
- Got 10 hours? Make a paper swan
- Make it or break it
- Maker Faire Austin: Oct. 18th and 19th, 2008, Austin, TX (2 weeks away!)
- Halloween science grossology
Comments
Oldest comments listed first.
| Posted by: mastershake916 on March 8, 2007 at 6:39 PM |
I thought it would be about a machine that would make fuel out of vegetable oil, that is 79 years old........
| Posted by: liambowen on March 8, 2007 at 7:47 PM |
I thought it would be about a 79 year old man who was being turned into veggie oil.
| Posted by: KidCharlemagne on March 8, 2007 at 8:47 PM |
Letter to Gov. Blagojevich away!
He's fairly progressive (or at least not owned by big oil) so there's a better than even chance that he might, you know, act in a way resembling a representative government.
Hint: If you're from Illinois (I only used to be) your voice would probably carry more weight.
| Posted by: austguy on March 8, 2007 at 11:40 PM |
Ridiculous.
I love this quote though. "I said, 'Come in.' Maybe I shouldn't have."
I know he says he doesn't mind paying the fine, but there are so many reason's why they shouldn't have to. For starters they're trying to do something good for everyone else and they haven't done anything wrong. Trying to siphon $250 to $2500 out of someone on a fixed income for not even really doing anything is just messed up.
We don't get a lot of traffic and so it probably won't do that much, but as a show of solidarity, until this is resolved we'll donate all of our site revenue at greendope.com to helping either with the Wetzel's fines or other needs.
| Posted by: durin on March 9, 2007 at 8:30 AM |
YANAL, but can someone explain how the state government can justify taxing something that was made at home and not sold or bartered, or even given away? This guy was creating it for his own use - the government should not receive, nor expect, any part of that.
| Posted by: KidCharlemagne on March 9, 2007 at 9:14 AM |
Fuel taxes are often spun as highway useage taxes. I'm not sure what they'd do if someone set up a solar recharger system for an electric car.
| Posted by: JayDedman on March 9, 2007 at 9:45 AM |
there's a woman who has started a "Veggie Oil Board" to try to organize people who run their cars on vegetable oil. See the video here: http://tinyurl.com/3exqlo
| Posted by: tms10000 on March 9, 2007 at 8:01 PM |
Common sense is in short supply in Illinois. I am not aware of the law, therefore I can only make assumptions and reflections on those.
1) If there is a law that forces you to use fuel purchased from a properly licensed commercial fuel supplier (i.e. gas station) then filling up your tank with vegetable oil _while driving it on public roads_ is illegal. You are evading the tax, you are commiting fraud. And if anything, you might deserve a _fine_, backpaying the tax should not be an option. I don't know about Illinois, they may or may not have such a law.
2) If there is no such law, then remind everyone that the tax applies to the FUEL you buy at the GAS station, and obviously, recycled vegetable oil is not subjected to the fuel tax.
3) Kits to convert your diesel car to dual vegetable oil/diesel have been around for ages in the US. If escaping the gas station mafia oil business was illegal it seems that more than one person would be in trouble.
4) As described in the news article, the whole story is wrong on many levels and totally assinine.
Subscribe to MAKE Magazine!
Subscribe today, save 42% and get web access to MAKE free. MAKE Digital Edition is available only to subscribers.
$34.95 / 1 year
(4 Quarterly Issues)
Features and more @ MAKE!
Add MAKE to iGoogle - GoogleGoogle.
Add MAKE to your RSS reader - Real simple.
Add MAKE on Twitter.
Add MAKE on FriendFeed & the MAKE room.

Why advertise on MAKE?
Read what folks are saying about us!
Click here to advertise on MAKE!
Phillip Torrone
Senior Editor
Tel: 707-827-7311
Gareth Branwyn
Robot Maker
Kip Kay
Video Maker
Jonah Brucker-Cohen
Artist / Researcher
Natalie Zee Drieu
Senior Editor
CRAFT
Becky Stern
Culture jammer
Collin Cunningham
Sound Maker
Marc de Vinck
CNC Maker



Leave a comment