Editor goes biodiesel

Rob Eshman, editor of the Jewish Journal, writes in the new issue that he decided to stop his moaning about America's reliance on foreign oil and do something about it.

So I bought a car.

And not a Prius. At 40 miles per gallon, the hybrid car to the stars is a gas-guzzler compared to my new baby: a 2005 Volkswagon [sic] Passat TDI, a diesel car that gets 30 to 40 miles per gallon ... of corn oil.

I'd been writing and speaking and boring my family for some time now on how absolutely stupid it is for Americans to be dependent on foreign oil. Our petroleum economy lines the pockets of Middle East potentates and other facilitators of extremism and terror. It directly endangers the state of Israel by strengthening its enemy's regimes. And, whether the oil we burn is from Texas or Saudi Arabia, it contributes to global warming.

The enormity of our stupidity is dwarfed by an even bigger stupidity: We have the technology, now, to solve this problem.

Take my new car, for instance. Two days after I bought it, I took my car to the appropriately named USA gas station at Glencoe Avenue and Mindanao Way in Marina del Rey and pulled up to a pump marked, "BioDiesel." I filled up my tank, and I drove away.

That's it. The fuel now powering my car is made in America from canola, corn, soy or other new and recycled food oils. Almost any off-the-assembly line diesel engine can run just fine on it.

Also in the issue: LA Observed contributor Bill Boyarsky offers a column on who the Jews of Los Angeles really are, and the Wilshire Boulevard Temple opens its doors to Koreatown.