I happened to read this short news story on Popular Mechanic's website:

"As if there weren't enough mixed messages from the auto industry and false promises about a hybrid future (click here for complete coverage), it turns out drivers can get a run-in with the law for running their cars on biofuel. North Carolina resident Bob Teixeira found that out the hard way after he converted his 1981 diesel Mercedes to run on vegetable oil and ended up facing hefty fines. Although Teixeira paid more for his fuel of choice in order to avoid dependence on imported oil (click here for our number crunch on alt-fuels), what he wasn’t paying was the highway fuel tax of 30 cents per gallon, which nets the state $1.2 billion annually to pay for highway expenses. Now Teixera owes $1000 to the state, expects a $1000 fine from the federal government and has been told he will have to pay a $2500 bond if he wants to continue using grease for gas. —Nick Mokey"

What a crock! How did they even find out he wasn't buying fuel from the pump? Were they spying on him?! Anyway, since when can a state force you to pay a bond for finding and making your own fuel, for your own consumption? Ridiculous...

 

Since the state started making laws. I guess. Unless you want all roads to be toll roads.

 

Good point about the toll roads.

I wonder how they knew where he was getting his fuel from, and how did they come up with the figure of a $1000 fine?

 

Well, if he was refining it himself, there's some bulky equipment and tanks involved. His neighbor might have ratted him out.
To refine it you need significant amounts of some chemicals. The authorities would only have to check the sales records to see who's buying the supplies.
Then there's the smell of the exhaust as the car is driven. I hear it smells like whatever food was fried in the oil.
Some fuel oil has a dye in it to signify whether or not road tax has been paid.
They could have asked local resturaunts what was happening to their waste oil. ETC.

 

That sucks. . .

Wonder what they will do to people running electric powered cars and scooters?

 

The story mentioned grease, so he's probably running it on unrefined cooking oil. Does NC have emissions testing? I would think that would be the only time a state employee would be near his car to smell it, and cops usually don't care about such things. I would also think the state would have better things to do than ask every restaurant in the area who they give their used oil to. Very odd.

 

Well, they could increase the fee for license plates. Just think what would happen if everyone drove solar powered cars. They would probably start some kind of "sunlight tax".

 

Not on anything other than OBD-II vehicles