PROGRESS WITH HOME-BREWED BIODIESEL: “Home-brewed biodiesel may be ready to move from your neighbor’s garage to prime time. No longer is the practice limited to a few mechanically inclined hippies with old converted electric water heaters. Now anyone can order up their own bio-brew kit online. . . . Biodiesel has two distinct faces. Big, young biodiesel companies are rising stars on angel-investor and venture-capital circles’ lists of emerging alt-fuels. Their biodiesel tends to be what home brewers call virgin fuel — made from fresh, new vegetable oil. Most of it is sold to companies and agencies large enough to have their own fleets and pumps. And there’s also the flourishing underground of brewers. From neighbors running reactors in garages, like Jules Dervaes and Hans Huth, to a Piedmont, North Carolina, cooperative that has grown to 500 members in four years and made a million gallons last year, home brewing is well-established.”

Let’s hear it for the flourishing undergrounds!