Why isn't vegatable oil an EPA registered fuel, and therefore illegal?

Question

Even though it is renewable and many times cleaner than petroleum based diesel fuels?

Sheer stupidity, or are they getting some donations under the table?

Answer 1

I have no idea what the EPA is, however i do know that in places such as Brazil, all the cars used to run on veggie oil and are capable of doing so, except the massive oil companies are paying the government to make it illegal.

The oil companies are rich enough to pay governments to make any form of oil they want illegal, so they can smash competition and keep their business

Answer 2

Vegetable oil falls under the auspices of the FDA not the EPA!  You know how governmental bodies don't communicate with each other!

Answer 3

Certain vegetable oils can be used as fuel in diesels.  There may be modification to the oil or to the diesel,  however, vegetable oils are much more expensive than diesel fuel, so the issue is one of cost.

However, your premise is wrong.. the U.S. EPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency) does not register fuel or make any fuel illegal.  It regulates the pollution generated when a fuel is being used

Answer 4

I under stand that all vehicles that drive on the road are required to pay state & federal tax on the gallons of fuel.

Answer 5

I'm pretty sure vegetable oil is LEGAL as there are tax incentives to use it.  

As always, you need to pay road tax on ANY fuel you use on the highway.  Fuel you buy at a gas station has road tax already on it, but if you use anything else, you gotta pay road tax.  However I believe the tax incentives for veggie oil are more than the road tax, so you are cash ahead.

The term "EPA registered fuel" does not seem to come up on any government site, except in the context of additives.

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=%22epa+...

Answer 6

There is no way the EPA can ensure that it is, in fact, clean and free of pollutants, particularly when the batches are mixed in a person's garage.  Burning vegetable oil does create pollutants.

And, maybe more important, no one gets to collect the highway fuel taxes that are added to each gallon of gasoline and diesel sold in a gas station.  That is why certain grades of fuel oil, which are largely indistinct from diesel fuel (except perhaps for sulphur content now), have been barred from highway use -- youse gotta pay de taxman.