RH: "The reason oil is so expensive right now on the international market is that supply is having trouble meeting demand. Its that simple. "

Richard Heinberg, who teaches Sustainable Ecology at New College of California, has been tracking oil depletion for about 7 years. The author of two books on the topic, Heinberg contends global oil production has reached its maximum output of about 84 million barrels a day.

RH: "We're hitting up against the natural limits of earth's productive capacity to meet our ever-increasing demands for more petroleum. So I would expect more price volatility later this year, I wouldn't expect prices to go down. "

A recent study commissioned by the US Dept. of Energy backs up that position. The report, titled, The Peaking of World Oil Production, concludes oil depletion is unlike any problem yet faced by modern industrial society. "The challenges and uncertainties need to be much better understood," the study found, but, "Technologies exist to mitigate the problem..." This past Saturday, some of those technologies were on display in Felton, CA, at an alternative fuels fair.

AMBI: {Engine starting up}

HC: "This is a diesel engine, its a six cylinder diesel engine, it runs on a hundred percent biodiesel. "

Henry Carter has been working on cars since he was fourteen years old. For over a decade, Henry and wife, Lisa Carter, have run Water Star Motors, an import auto repair shop in Santa Cruz. The family run business is one of the few places in the region who sell biodiesel; a fuel made from vegetable oil and mixed with ethanol to create what Lisa Carter refers to as a "sustainable" fuel.

LC: "we can grow it on American soil, and the farmers can get paid for all their crops, it can be made from many plants, the most popular of course is soybeans, as well as, grapeseed oil, you can take it from the fryer grease from the restaurants...."

At present, biodiesel retails for $3.60 per gallon, and less than one percent of the total diesel fuel consumption in the United States is biodiesel. But according to Brent Laucher, vice president of Pacific Biofuels, Inc., that number is rapidly growing.

BL: "You have to dig a little bit for it, but its moving so fast that its actually becoming more readily available than I think alot of people know.... Biodiesel is now being used in every state in the union and processed in every state in the union."

Many local and state governments, are turning to biodiesel for emergency vehicles, and public transit. Two years ago, Berkeley, CA was first to use 100 percent biodiesel in all city vehicles, but recently halted the program, after two city trucks had engine failure due to mold in the fuel.

Any car with a diesel engine can run on biofuel, but for vegetable oil, you'll need some adjustments. Steve Schiff, a farmer from Corralitos CA, converted his Ford F 150 pickup to run on used fryer grease he gets from a falafel shop.

SS: "It entailed putting copper wiring in the bottom of the tank and then running a hose within a hose, they call it, which runs coolant from your engine."

If that's too much trouble, those seeking to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels have other options.

DB "Any fuel injected car can use somewhere between 30-50 % alcohol with no changes whatsoever because modern cars have enough flexibililty and feedback built into the computer system."

In 1983, Dave Blume, president of the Institute for Ecological Agriculture, produced a 10 part TV series, Alcohol as Fuel, for KQED. The station pulled the series after Chevron threatened to cut off funding. Alcohol fuel, made form corn or sugarbeets is alot like moonshine, Blume says, and much cleaner burning than gasoline.

DB: "basically, its now possible to grow our way into energy self-sufficiency"

MUSIC: {accordian player}

In the midwest, there's nearly 600 stations that sell alcohol at the pump. Blume says Santa Cruz County's first, cooperatively run, alternative fueling station will open up in the near future. Reporting in Santa Cruz, I'm Vinny Lombardo for Free Speech Radio News.