Frying Squad on scent of cooking oil motorists

The Daily Telegraph ^ | 10/10/2002 | Nicola Woolcock

[UKCajun]

Drivers trying to beat rising fuel costs have discovered a cheaper means of powering their cars - cooking oil.

They are mixing the oil, which costs 32p a litre, with methanol and using it in place of diesel, which retails at about 74p. Police and Customs officers are trying to tackle the problem by sniffing out offenders, whose cars give off a distinctive "chip shop" smell.

An increasing number of motorists in Llanelli, west Wales, are filling their tanks with cooking oil in place of diesel after word spread. The town's Asda supermarket sells more cooking oil than any other branch in Britain and is now limiting sales as a precaution.

A spokesman said: "Anyone seen attempting to wipe out our stock with bulk purchases would be stopped."

One driver said: "I've halved my motoring costs since I started running my diesel on cooking oil. The car runs just as well and even smells a lot better."

He was one of dozens to have their cars impounded in the police crackdown, and said: "I was stopped by an unmarked car which had blue lights flashing. The officer went to the fuel tank, dipped it, and found cooking oil.

"I put my hands up to the offence and the car was towed away. They said Customs would be notified."

The AA warned motorists of the dangers of running cars on cooking oil. Its spokesman said: "It could severely damage your vehicle."

The drivers of impounded cars are fined £500 and charged a £150 towing fee. Persistent offenders could face up to seven years in jail.

[UKCajun]

Agreed. How much cooking oil do think get dumped down drains and into landfills all across America--from the home to restaurant use?

[biggerten]

Home use no doubt gets dumped. As for commercial use, the cooking oil gets recycled. There are companies that pay for the old oil. We owned a bar in Northern Wisconsin, and the rendering plant simply gave us a barrel. We would pour the used oil into the barrel, the company would come by with a new barrel and take the old away and mail us a check.

I know it also gets used for cattle feed as well.

[UKCajun]

I smell an opportunity.

[UKCajun]

Could give new meaning to the term "Texas oilman."

[Prodigal Son]

but this is attractive in UK where diesel is $7 per gallon

I'm not sure how you figure diesel is $7 per gallon. I just cashed a check in USD yesterday and the exchange was about $1.60 per pound sterling. From the article it says diesel is 72 pence per liter. There's approximately 4 liters in the gallon (not exact- but the small difference won't affect this equation). So we're looking at 2 pounds 88 pence per US gallon (imperial pint is 20 ounces). You do the math you come up with $4.60 per gallon of diesel. Even if you used imperial gallons it would only be $5.32 or so.

[Prodigal Son]

I can't believe they'd throw people in jail for 7 years or even impound their car for that matter. What exactly would the charge be? We don't have a diesel but I'll definitely think about buying one and doing this.

[UKCajun]

The charge: TAX EVASION.

The "culprits" are evading the UK fuel tax by using either recycled fish and chip shop cooking oil, or cooking oil that they buy at ASDA supermarkets and the like. However, even though the pay VAT (value added tax) of about 20% on the cooking oil they buy at the supermarket, that doesn't count. They need to pay fuel tax too.

[from occupied ga]

Didn't everyone want cars to burn off of ethonal? Something we can grow with crops. Not only that, but it lowers world dependence on Arab states. Just imagine if England could export oil to the US, and the US could export cooking oil to jolly 'ole England. If we allowed our people and farmers to be free to grow, produce, and consume as they see fit, my goodness! Bad 'ole oil no longer needed. Tankers no longer needed. Refineries no longer needed. ANWR no longer needed. No drilling anywhere. No oil spills. And America's farmers would make us rich!

I hope you just inadvertantly forgot the sarcasm tag because this is, of course, total utter and absolute bullsh!t Ethanol used as fuel consumes more fossil fuel than just burning petrol straight from the refinery. Look at this link www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/01/8.23.01/Pimentel-ethanol.html to see the details that no ecofreak ever understands (or ever acknowledges if they do understand, because environmentalism is a religion, not a rational position)

[Prodigal Son]

Yeah, but in a sense, I'm evading taxes every time I use my bicycle instead of a car. It isn't as if people are buying black market diesel or petrol. They're using a totally different fuel.

It's an impossibility, but let's imagine for a moment that I could add a few drops of dish detergent to water (work with me here ;-)) and put it in my car's tank and it would work. Could they charge me for doing that? That's kind of a kooky example- but I wanted to go to the extreme right away. Surely they can't imprison you for that or even claim to be able to.

What these people have done is come up with an alternative fuel. It's as if the gov't is saying you must use diesel or petrol in your cars. What if I invent a motor that runs on air? They can't tax the air. What if I invent a fuel injection system that gives me 300 miles to the liter. That would be evading the tax as well if I installed that injection system on my car.

Ach, it's useless to complain. I suppose when I get sick of paying the high prices of petrol here, I'll move somewhere else.

[Marie Antoinette]

I certainly hope it's not soybean oil! At high temperatures that stuff turns to, well, rubber. I ruined a perfectly good gas burner on my range with it while making fries. Took it apart and the burner was toast. Needless to say I won't even USE that stuff anymore for cooking :-P

[johnboy]

Next time some enviro-wacko tells you ADM runs the world, you tell them this story! Here we have a perfectly good use for all that GM corn, and the British government is opposing it!

you know what the best thing about this is? we have discovered a much, MUCH better use for our superflous grain than giving it to a bunch of racist, ungrateful, corrupt, redundant zimbabwans.

this is the first thing i've read in a week that's made me smile.

[UKCajun]

Hey, I agree totally. But that's the situation here. Pray it never gets to be like that back home. I can guarantee, that if the Democrats had their way, you'd be looking at the same situation. Heck, just last week, Clinton was over schmoozing at the Labour party conference, and the socialists were eating it up.

I posted the article because to me it exemplifies the hypocrisy of the socialists and the environmentalists. If they really cared, they'd be on this like white on rice.

[UKCajun]

Glad it made you smile. I got a good chuckle out of it too. Now that the "cooking oil" technique has been publicized, I expect east London to start smelling like a giant fish and chips shop. The geni is out the bottle now--the tax man is going to have his hands full with this one!

[Happygal]

Remember, when cooking oil is criminalised, only criminals will have cooking oil. ;)

My car would go on the smell of a bag of chips ! *L*

[MadIvan]

My car would go on the smell of a bag of chips ! *L*

Darling, all you have to do is stick a sail out the sunroof, tack, and you'll be going faster than if the engine was turned on. ;)

Love, Ivan

[Rebelbase]

Why?

[wita]

You took the words right out of my mouth, but not the web address. Good find. For any country to begin using food stuffs for fuel, if the variety of corn used for ethanol is an edible variety, when there is more than adequate oil to be used for fuel, is folly beyond measure. It has been duscussed at great length on FR that when there is a "real" break through in technology, alternative fuels may become viable, but until that time, we should not be holding our breath, or pee ceeing all over ourselves to placate the stupid and ignorant who call themselves, environmentalists.

[verity]

The AA warned motorists of the dangers of running cars on cooking oil. Its spokesman said: "It could severely damage your vehicle."

I am sorry to inform you that your motorcar has developed a fatal case of high cholesterol! ;~)

[UKCajun]

AA informs you that your car is obese and need to go on a diet!