Greener pastures?

Environment | Biodiesel advocates champion soybean oil and recycled French fry fat—but problems lurk beneath the hype | Mark Bergin

SEATTLE— Seattle business owner Joe Whinney turned off a quiet side street and backed his 2006 Volkswagen Jetta up a short driveway to an insulated plywood shed on a recent Wednesday afternoon. Inside that dilapidated structure stood an old-fashioned gas pump—an industrial relic more typical of lonely highway outposts than this urban neighborhood's mix of residential and light industrial space.

But Whinney didn't come to admire an antique. His interest centered on the long-overlooked technology gurgling within the pump's hoses. "Just fill it up," he said to a waiting attendant, who promptly squirted 13-plus gallons of modified vegetable oil into the Jetta's fuel tank.

A clipboard with a hand-written daily customer log lay nearby, listing the names of about a dozen drivers who, like Whinney, had bypassed the area's numerous petroleum-based diesel stations for the more expensive biodiesel at Dr. Dan's Alternative Fuel Werks. "Let's just say I'm a serious tree-hugger," said Whinney, the founder of an organic, fair-trade chocolate factory in town. "Biofuel, from all the research I've done, is just consistent with my personal values."