Bio-Beetle is part of a growing trend in environmentally friendly rental cars and other forms of for-hire transportation. In several places across the nation, it is possible to rent - by the hour, the day or the week - hybrid gasoline-electric cars or cars that run on electricity, natural gas or, as in the case of Bio-Beetle's VW, vegetable oil.
Fueling the car, Ms. Smith found, proved to be fairly easy, with a Pacific Biodiesel station in a convenient location near Kahului Airport in Maui. And it was cheaper, too. "When we refueled to go back to the airport, the price of biodiesel was quite a bit less," Ms. Smith said, about $2.30 a gallon versus $2.69 on average for regular unleaded.
Too bad it's not easy to find a bio-fueling station. There's a well-known business school professor at Carnegie Mellon who believes that the US should stop growing food (since we grow way more than we need) and replace farm crops with switchgrass, which can be converted into biomass fuel. Of course, don't expect the 2 oilman tools running the country to go out for a reality-based energy independence scenario. Imagine what achieving energy independence would do for the country in terms of reducing our dependence on friendly totalitarian regimes in the Middle East who tacitly support terror organizations with proceeds from our oil consumption.
I'll have to settle for a hybrid - I've got my eyes on a hybrid SUV once we have a need for a child car safety seat...
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