Bio-diesel why would it be legal?

[NeoPTLD]

It's illegal to use home heating fuel No.2, nautical fuel, etc in a diesel car or gasoline purchased for farm use in a gas car for fuel tax reason, so why would bio-diesel be legal?

There's a guy in this paper who makes bio-diesel out of used vegetable oil obtained from a restaurant and turn it into bio-diesel at home to use in his motor vehicle registered to use on public roads.

 

[Heisenberg]

I would guess that what he's doing is either illegal or there's a loophole in the law somewhere.

 

[NeoPTLD]

Originally posted by: Heisenberg
I would guess that what he's doing is either illegal or there's a loophole in the law somewhere.

Full story:
school paper

There's not a word mentioned on tax.

 

[Eli]

Uh.. It's not illegal to make it for your own use, just like it's not illegal to make beer for your own use.

Further, why would it be illegal even to sell it? If the vegetable oil isn't taxed, it isn't taxed..

Unless there is some sort of unviersal motorfuel tax or something, which I am doubting.

 

[Howard]

Biodiesel is completely legal.

 

[Babbles]

Yup, biodiesel is indeed legal. Hard to find mainstream. It is one of the things that VW touts that their TDI cars can run on, I hope something like that becomes more mainstream.

 

[NeoPTLD]

Originally posted by: Babbles
Yup, biodiesel is indeed legal. Hard to find mainstream. It is one of the things that VW touts that their TDI cars can run on, I hope something like that becomes more mainstream.

In other words, if you make your own bio-diesel, you automatically become exempt from paying taxes to operate vehicles on public roadway?

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: Babbles
Yup, biodiesel is indeed legal. Hard to find mainstream. It is one of the things that VW touts that their TDI cars can run on, I hope something like that becomes more mainstream.

Really? I have been seriously thinking about getting the Volkswagen 4 door Golf TDI for quite some time ... I've been keeping a mental note of all the diesel pumps on my office routes. But not all of the gas stations have them, especially in the bigger city (which is weird?). And plus I like using my Sunoco card for a quick fillup but diesel pumps are always old and you have to pay with cash. 🙁

 

[Babbles]

My girlfriend has a Jetta TDI and over at one of the VW boards (http://www.vwvortex.com/ I think) we did some research before buying and it seems to work well. Problem is actually finding the stuff.

Also, what is cool about the TDI fuel caps is that they are large enough to accomadate the pumps at truck stops, really big holes to pump your gas into, so you can look for those. They have a tendency to carry lower prices and more fresh fuel. With the lower prices of diesel and the ~48 MPG, it was worth it for my girlfriend who has to drive ~45 minutes each way to work.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: NeoPTLD

Originally posted by: Babbles
Yup, biodiesel is indeed legal. Hard to find mainstream. It is one of the things that VW touts that their TDI cars can run on, I hope something like that becomes more mainstream.

In other words, if you make your own bio-diesel, you automatically become exempt from paying taxes to operate vehicles on public roadway?

Yes.

They cannot make you pay taxes on a product you aren't using.

 

[KenGr]

I'm having a little trouble following some of the statements here but I think you guys are a little off base on the taxes.

Fuels have federal and state taxes applied. Some are "road taxes" and some are "sales taxes". If you make your own fuel, you could have a good case for not paying the sales tax but the road tax would theoretically still be due. In practice, no one would have an easy way of tracking this, so enforcement would be unlikely. However, there are a couple of outs on road taxes, at least one of which would apply here.

Road taxes are not due on vehicles not operated on public roads. Farmers, fishermen and factories get rebates on road tax for off road vehicles. In theory you can also get a rebate for your lawnmower and your jet ski, but I'm not sure if anyone does this. Probably doesn't apply in this case anyway.

More important, most states have written in a road tax exemption for experimental fuels. Biodiesel is included here, so even if you fill up with biodiesel at a commercial filling station, it will probably not have road tax added. Sales tax is usually not exempted.