At the Beverly Hills Film Festival (www.beverlyhillsfilmfestival.com) I watched a screening of the documentary Fields of Fuel (http://www.fieldsoffuel.com/) that chronicles the history and facts about “bio-diesel” liquid as an alternative and future fuel. The narrator of the film has written a book about this subject:
http://www.amazon.com/Fryer-Fuel-Tank-Vegetable-Alternative/dp/0970722702/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208126003&sr=8-1
Both book and film show how any diesel engine can run off treated vegetable-based oils (peanut, corn, soy, hemp) that do not emit harmful waste and are less costly than regular diesel fuel.
http://www.greasecar.com/
The documentary makes a radical claim that John D. Rockefeller was behind the drafting of the Volstead Act (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAvolstead.htm) – a.k.a “The Dry Law” of the18th Amendment that engaged Prohibition, the outlawing of alcohol in America that gave birth to a great deal of criminal activity.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/troy/4399/
Fields of Fuel claims Rockefeller wanted the manufacturing of booze illegal to stump the making of ethanol (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel), which was the basis for bo diesel fuel. At the time, the diesel engine was in its infancy and was slowly gaining popularity in the public If diesel cars became the wave of the future, Rockefeller’s Standard Oil could have been ruined – why use petrol-based fuel from the ground when corn oil could do a better, cheaper job?
http://hemp-ethanol.blogspot.com/2008/01/part-two-history-of-hemp-fuels.html
Inventor Rudolf Diesel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Diesel) did die a mysterious death before his engines could become all the age:
“In the evening of 29 September, 1913, Diesel took a ship (SS Dresden) to cross the English Channel from Antwerp, Belgium, to Harwich, England. He took dinner on board the ship and then retired to his cabin at about 10 p.m., leaving word for him to be called the next morning at 6:15 a.m. He could not be found the next morning. Ten days later, he was found dead in the water off the Dutch coast; after the recovery of his body, it was thrown back into water.”
Rockefeller did donate $350,000 to the Anti-Saloon League (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAprohibition.htm) …but did was he the puppet master of the Prohibition, and was it to deter the making of bio-diesel fuels?
If this is so, it casts new light on American history, and all those gangsters, booze runners, speakeasys, and the thousands of people killed during that era were nothing more than pawns to ensure the oil barons got rich off of gasoline sales.
1 comments:
Please correct these errors:
You wrote that the film "... chronicles the history and facts about “bio-diesel” liquid as an alternative and future fuel."
Yes it talks about biodiesel, but also about ethanol, plug-in electric, wind and solar among others. This might seem like a small correction but it is very important since later on you get it completely wrong regarding John D. Rockefeller, biodiesel and prohibition. (I'll come back to that)
Your next minor error in order:
"Both book and film show how any diesel engine can run off treated vegetable-based oils (peanut, corn, soy, hemp)"
Although corn oil can be used to make biodiesel, I believe it accounts for only a very small fraction, soy and rapeseed and palm being the three biggest biodiesel feedstocks from 1.0 feedstocks as opposed to 2.0 non-food feedstocks that hold the most promise i.e. algae, as well as cellulosic waste and other types of waste material and non food plant sources. Corn is mentioned in "Fields of Fuel" as the current major feedstock for the other main biofuel ethanol.
Big error - not what the film says:
"Fields of Fuel claims Rockefeller wanted the manufacturing of booze illegal to stump the making of ethanol which was the basis for bo diesel fuel."
No it doesn't. The film clearly states that Henry Ford made cars through 12 of the 13 years of prohibition that could run on ethanol and that the rate of ethanol's uptake as a fuel was a threat to standard oil's petroleum based equivalent, gasoline.
Ford's cars dropped ethanol compatibility the year before prohibition was lifted.
Also, nowhere does the film say that ... ethanol ... was the basis for bo diesel fuel." (biodiesel I think you mean)
Anyway, glad you enjoyed the film. I worked on it.
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