Ecotourism Adventure Travel - Grease is the Word

You Are Here:

Home >> Grease is the Word

Q&A: Climbing El Capitan with Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin, and Ivo Ninov listen
Q&A: Maggie Anthony On Son Eric Volz listen
Q&A: Photographer Danny Clinch listen
Q&A: "Coca Is It!" Author Joshua Hammer listen
Q&A: "Strange Bird" Author Carl Hoffman listen
Out of Bounds: That '70s Guy listen

What kind of dog will make me look manlier? answer
Is there a sport that safely combines my twin passions for guns and kayaks? answer
How come most of the world's cultures enjoy eating goat, but Americans don't? answer

Why do mosquito bites itch? answer
Are elite athletes just lucky genetic mutants? answer
Can women really tolerate cold water better than men? answer

Online Favorites

Special Issues

Photo Galleries

Outside Magazine September 2003

Page:

Grease is the Word
Biodiesel is about to go big-time. Will the ski-bum town of Telluride, Colorado, become the green-fuel Houston?

By Florence Williams


	Charris Ford cruises Telluride with his fuel of the future: used French-fry oil. (Gregg Segal)

CHARRIS FORD is a perpetual parade float. In his black, convertible 1980 International Scout, he drives up and down the main drag of the absurdly picturesque town of Telluride, Colorado, where the San Juans' jagged granite peaks rise up on three sides in curtains of pine, rock, and snow. He smiles, he waves, he catcalls to his many well-wishers. The cross section of Telluridians out and about today—some of them skateboarding, some rolling sport-utility baby carriages, many lounging on the benches outside the Steaming Bean coffee shop—all look unhurried, well caffeinated, and fit.

"Hey, you'uns, whassup?" whoops Charris.

They respond with wolf howls and fist pumps. In a few minutes he'll pass them going the other direction. They'll raise their coffee mugs in salute. To them, 33-year-old Charris (pronounced "Char-iss")

JUMP ON THE BIOWAGON

CLICK HERE to find out more about environment-friendly fuel alternatives including ethanol, vegetable oil, hydrogen fuel cells, and gas/electric hybrids.

represents everything they love about their own well-ordered and enlightened place in the universe. He is youthful, good-looking, hip, and eminently politically correct. He is well connected, with friends in Hollywood, at newspapers, and in politics. He raps and sometimes speaks in iambic pentameter. He cooks ostrich eggs. He talks on a cell phone while sitting on a composting toilet. And he has brought biodiesel to Telluride. A concoction of vegetable oil, lye, and alcohol, biodiesel can supplant standard petroleum diesel. (The lye reacts with the oil, leaving glycerine as a by-product and methyl esters as fuel.) Thanks to Charris's vision of a world powered by processed veggie grease, a handful of locals now use the stuff in snowcats, tractors, backhoes, generators, school buses, golf-course maintenance vehicles, and a construction crane. And, of course, Charris's Scout runs on the green-friendly fuel. A dozen restaurants currently hand over their spent cooking oil to Charris and his band of biodiesel confederates, and more are ready to sign up when the fuel-brewing capacity of his company—Grassolean Solutions—increases. Although communities like Breckenridge have launched transportation fleets powered by "B20," a relatively timid blend of bio and petroleum diesel, Telluride has become the first town to run a public bus on "B100," a mixture as pure as biodiesel gets.

The thin air smells like a fried spud.

Page:

Correspondent FLORENCE WILLIAMS wrote about environmental innovation in the Netherlands in June.

TODAY'S NEWS UPDATE!
The Gear Junkie: Ski and Snowboard Gear...
By Stephen Regenold Winter is upon us, and with it ski areas across the country are ...