Following the horrific tale relayed by perpetual Los Angeles scourge Wilmer Valderrama to Howard Stern, we needed some good Mandy Moore news to cleanse the negative thoughts of the young starlet from our minds. The Business Journal, via TreeHugger, reports that Moore, along with other Hollywood celebrities are jumping aboard the bio-fuel revolution sweeping through LA (okay, maybe just Silver Lake).
The celebrities and local entrepreneurs embracing vegetable-based fuels may be pointing automakers including Toyota and Volkswagen AG toward the future. Their switch might be copied by other motorists in Los Angeles, which tends to be on the leading edge of trends that go statewide. The shift also could help clean up the skies of Los Angeles, the smoggiest U.S. city last year. "With movie stars endorsing this, demand may go up," said Phil Gott, director of automotive consulting at Global Insight Inc., an economic forecasting company. "It may cause vehicle manufacturers to offer a broader range of cars."
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Actress Mandy Moore, 21, had her car adapted to run on pure vegetable oil or the filtered leftovers from restaurant deep fryers, said Brian Friedman, owner of LoveCraftBioFuels in Los Angeles, the only company in the area that specializes in converting diesel engines to run on vegetable oil, which is thicker."It's crazy right now," Friedman said. "I can't take half the business that comes in. Every month, business at least doubles, sometimes even quadruples."
Anything to clean up our skies and put the smell of french fries in our streets is a good idea. We hope this idea takes off.
· L.A. hip crowd shuns gas hybrid for biodiesel fuel [Business Journal via TreeHugger]