These Two Hands

Can you believe this article from the LA Times? The State of California is fining motorists for tax evasion: they haven’t been paying the 18-cents-per-gallon-of-gas road tax that’s included with gas purchases. Here’s the catch, though; these guys haven’t been buying gas at all. They’ve been running their cars on recycled vegetable oil, which they can pick up for free at any restaurant with a deep fryer.

For what it’s worth, I do understand that the 18 cents per gallon goes towards infrastructure, road repairs, and all that good and necessary road work. But honestly, these guys are trying to do a Good Thing – but they don’t even get a pass to the carpool lane like the hybrid drivers do.

The funny thing is, the red tape doesn’t end there. They’re also going to be fined for transporting oil without a license from the state Meat and Poultry Inspection Branch. And for not having $1 million in liability insurance. And for burning fat without permission from the state Air Resources Board.

I should point out, as it says in the article, that even the Governator has been driving this kind of car – as an example to the people of California – and even he didn’t know about these regulations. He wasn’t in compliance, either.

Don’t you think, in a day and age where people are desperately trying to come up with environmentally friendly alternatives to foreign oil, that someone in charge could take a deep breath, step back, and give individuals with this kind of motivation a bit of a break?

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 8th, 2008 at 9:08 am and is filed under blahblah. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.