$1000 fine for bumper sticker...my car is 100% powered by vegetable oil

[IChing]

BRUCE HENDERSON
Bob Teixeira decided it was time to take a stand against U.S. dependence on foreign oil.So last fall the Charlotte musician and guitar instructor spent $1,200 to convert his 1981 diesel Mercedes to run on vegetable oil. He bought soybean oil in 5-gallon jugs at Costco, spending about 30 percent more than diesel would cost.

His reward, from a state that heavily promotes alternative fuels: a $1,000 fine last month for not paying motor fuel taxes.

He’s been told to expect another $1,000 fine from the federal government.

And to legally use veggie oil, state officials told him, he would have to first post a $2,500 bond.

Teixeira is one of a growing number of fuel-it-yourselfers — backyard brewers who recycle restaurant grease or make moonshine for their car tanks. They do it to save money, reduce pollution or thumb their noses at oil sheiks.

They’re also caught in a web of little-known state laws that can stifle energy independence.

State Sen. Stan Bingham, R-Davidson, is known around Raleigh for his diesel Volkswagen fueled by used soybean oil. The car sports a “Goodbye, OPEC” sign.

“If somebody was going to go to this much trouble to drive around in a car that uses soybean oil, they ought to be exempt” from state taxes, he said.

The N.C. Department of Revenue, which fined Teixeira, has asked legislators to waive the $2,500 bond for small fuel users. The department also told Teixeira, after the Observer asked about his case this week, that it will compromise on his fine.

But officials say they’ll keep pursuing taxes on all fuels used in highway vehicles. With its 29.9-cent a gallon gas tax, the state collects $1.2 billion each year to pay for road construction.

“With the high cost of fuel right now, the department does recognize that a lot of people are looking for relief,” said Reggie Little, assistant director of the motor fuel taxes division. “We’re not here to hurt the small guy, we’re just trying to make sure that the playing field is level.”


http://www.tondan.com/2007/06/13/1000-fine-triggered-by-bumper-sticker-powered-by-100-vegetable-oil/

[stellanoir]

1. This is BS for this guy on so many levels

I don't even know where to start,

Hope he wins out in the end.

[LuckyTheDog]

33. My reaction exactly

Complete BS.

[villager]

2. "level" my ass. Moral of story: Do not put a bumper sticker on your car

advertising your non-slave status viz. the oil companies! The overseers are watching!

[Alexia Wheaton]

6. Correct. The government is out for themselves.

[IChing]

7. There is even a story along these lines in the northeast

I can't find the story right now, but he was fined mega bucks also.

[guruoo]

27. Illinois Man Fined Thousands And Threatened With Felony Prosecution For Using Untaxed Biodiesel

Ref: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/03/illinois_man_fi.php



Herald & Review/Kelly J. Huff
Decatur resident Dave Wetzel may be in hot cooking oil with the
Illinois Department of Revenue, who claim he needs to pay $244
in back taxes for the gallons of vegetable oil he has been
running his Volkswagon car on for the past 5 years.

State makes big fuss over local couple's vegetable oil car fuel
By HUEY FREEMAN - H&R Staff Writer

DECATUR - David and Eileen Wetzel don't get going in the morning quite
as early as they used to.

So David Wetzel, 79, was surprised to hear a knock on the door at their
eastside home while he was still getting dressed.

Two men in suits were standing on his porch.

"They showed me their badges and said they were from the Illinois Department
of Revenue," Wetzel said. "I said, 'Come in.' Maybe I shouldn't have."

Gary May introduced himself as a special agent. The other man, John Egan,
was introduced as his colleague. May gave the Wetzels his card, stating that
he is the senior agent in the bureau of criminal investigations.

...
More: http://www.herald-review.com/articles/2007/03/01/news/local_news/1021491.txt

[William769]

3. I'm speechless, really I am.

[Alexia Wheaton]

4. I hate when the government interferes with creativity!

:mad:

[villager]

9. that's their essential job. n/t

[Double T]

5. The government will always derail and subvert progress.

[Telly Savalas]

23. Government would be an instrument of progress

if only people were committed to making it work, instead of electing morons to office.

[Rick Myers]

8. I can't even type the words that describe this kind of shit!!!

:grr:

[wildbilln864]

10. Where are the freaking recs?

This is outrageous!

Is it fascism YET? :grr:

[zabet]

11. Wow!

I am sure this person had to pay sales tax on the oil he purchased at the Costco. (Winston Salem Newspaper). That shows he paid some taxes, just not the 'highway use tax' on gas that the Feds get. What is next? A tax for bus and taxi rides since they use the roads?
This is why we cannot get away from oil, the government has not figured out how to get rich off of the alternative fuels. Solar power gets virtually no promotion beccause they cannot tax the sun.
:smoke:

[DarkTirade]

29. You also have to wonder...

if someone is buying gas for an offroad vehicle, or a lawn mower, or a portable power generator, or an air compressor, or a chainsaw, or any number of things that can use gas but don't go on the road... does that mean they should be EXEMPT from the gas taxes?

[greguganus]

34. You can get a refund on the gas you use for off-road, but you have to file...

...with the Dept. of Revenue/Motor Fuels Divison and they will refund your 29.9 cents/gallon. I just called my SO who works for this department in NC and read this article to them. They told me that they have been trying to get the legistlature to waive the bond for small use drivers. The legistlature doesn't want to give up the tax revenue. I was told it was also a national law, so you get taxed twice.

[DarkTirade]

52. Hmm. In that case, it might just be easier to invent myself

a Jetsons-style hovercar...
hey at least it's easier than going through red tape... :)

[sl8]

38. Untaxed (and dyed) diesel/fuel oil/kerosene is readily available.

I don't know if untaxed gasoline is available.

Just don't get caught with the dyed fuel in the wrong vehicle.

[Cabcere]

49. Belated welcome to DU, sl8!

:hi: Good to have you here.

[sl8]

54. Grazie, grazie.

Pleased to be here.

I didn't notice it at first - I like your avatar.

[DarkTirade]

51. Yeah, a friend of mine who drives an old diesel car told me about that

After one of the hurricanes here in Florida, they were so desperate to get diesel in that they ended up using the dyed diesel for a week or so in the regular gas pumps. :)

[sl8]

55. I seem to recall

an exemption on the fuel tax in Florida after one of the hurricanes. I don't remember any details, though.

[RB TexLa]

12. I would say exempt the tax right now, but it pretty much is a road use tax

I think there should be a lower tax for homemade fuels but it should only be enforced after there are enough people doing it for it to actually make a difference in the revenues.

Best thing that can come of it would be if I'm making fuel for my car and paying a tax per gallon, I'd start finding people to sell some of the fuel to in order to lower if not eliminate what I am having to pay out of pocket.

[gratuitous]

13. Uh oh . . .

Maybe I should buy a couple of gallons of gas each week I bicycle to work. You know, just so that Big Oil can get its cut, and I won't be some subversive anti-societal terrorist lover or something.

Nahhhhhhhh.

[IChing]

16. You shouldn't be able to ride your bike on the public streets

because you don't buy fuel to support highway funds.

If you put a bumper sticker on your bicycle, I wonder if they would fine you too?

It is ridiculous I know.

[Richard Steele]

18. I'm not paying that tax on the food I eat to power my bicycle!

Nobody tell the State on me, OK?

This whole case is fricking ridiculous.
Any SANE government would be SUBSIDIZING this,
not punishing it. :silly:

[Spangle]

14. Oh my GOSH!

Doesn't he get credit for recycling the oil??? What about cutting down on pollution, some places are getting hit hard by that.

I understand the need to generate money for roads. But does all that money really go to the road system in question? Some places the money is just put into the general fund. That makes the point mute. And if the general fund is also having to pay for pollution and dealing with the excess oil, etc.. He should get credit for doing his part. Not punished for it.

I could understand if this was such a major issue and there were tons of people doing this so much it was cutting into funds. But it isn't. By the time it does, there will be someone out there taking that oil, recycling it and selling it. Such persons would out bid to get the contract for the oil. Such 'single buyers' would be stuck getting theirs at the pump.

Right now... the point should be to encourage it as a test run.

[Gregorian]

25. That would be common sense. But remember, tobacco is legal and cannibis not.

There is little common sense going around any more.

I just have a sense of a new Boston Harbor tea party. Something along that line.

He who has the gold, rules. But I say- he who has the black gold rules all.

This totally sucks. And it's indicative of how badly in need this country is of a fresh start. We need a revolution.

[Warren DeMontague]

15. Wasn't there a story like this out of Illinois a few months ago?

Ridiculous. But enough attention could get the rules changed, I think that's what happened with the other story.

[Jonathan50]

17. Shouldn't electric cars be subject to this fine also?

They use the road and pay no fuel taxes..

[bbgrunt]

37. do you suppose that this is one of the causes for the disappearance of the electric car?

[Kingshakabobo]

44. You can bet good money the states are working on contingency plans to collect road use tax...

People will have to re-think how we fund our road system IF and when we drastically reduce oil/gasoline consumption.

The fact of the mater is, the states have always had mechanisms in place to exact their pound of flesh from "scofflaws" that aren't paying their road tax. Up until now, the mechanism to beat the tax was to use diesel fuel sold for construction vehicles, farm vehicles and other off-road vehicles. As someone mentioned up-thread, don't get caught on the road with the wrong color diesel fuel.

[xmas74]

19. Why can't they just add $100 to his licensing fee

for his license plates next time he has to register? It's more than a fair trade and most of us would pay it if it helps out in the long run.

He doesn't purchase gas. Why not add a small fee on with his state taxes at tax time? But he should also get a card of some sort showing that he's tax exempt during the year-on vegetable oil only. It's not like it's that hard to do-Dept of Revenue can get the forms from another dept (education, social services, etc) and have him fill it out with the exemption stated that it's only on veg oil (or soybean-whatever._ Then, at tax time, he can pay a bit extra in to the state for taxes or he can pay when it's time to renew his tags for his vehicle.

[Liberal In Texas]

20. This totally sucks.

It sounds like something that a Texas legislator would do.

It's like, what do we want? To be slaves to the Arab countries?

-Boy are they in league with each other....

[JCMach1]

21. This needs to be deregulated now....!

[tularetom]

22. I gotta disagree with the premise of his argument

Gasoline taxes are this country's purest example of a government fee for services, at least in theory. Taxes on motor fuels are in almost all states used exclusively for the construction and maintenance of roads used by those who buy fuels.

Have you ever been behiind one of those trucks with a sign saying "this vehicle pays $10,000 in road taxes"? That truck probably does $20,000 of damage to the roads it uses in one year. Who makes up the difference? You and I. One heavy truck is equivvalent to thousands of cars in the damage it causes to road surfaces and base. But the fuel taxes paid by millions of drivers of cars and light trucks pay many times the fuel taxes that the truckers do. We are subsidizing the trucking industry. So Mr. Teixeira is not screwing the trucking companies, or the oil companies, he is screwing all of us who have to pay a slight bit more to repair the (admittedly slight) damage his vehicle causes.

Now you may want to applaud his giving the finger to big oil and I agree, they are deserving of it. But it isn't them who are paying for Mr. Teixeira's rebelliousness. You are and you should be aware of it before you encourage it.

[ReverendDeuce]

26. I agree 100%! I was thinking the same thing...

Does this clown think the roads build themselves? There will (and SHOULD BE) taxes that cover maintenance of basic infrastructure. Roads ARE a part of modern basic infrastructure as the public uses them.

[originalpckelly]

36. ***cough***

***tax nazi*** ***cough***

[dysfunctional press]

30. the state senator had a bone-headed statement too:

"If somebody was going to go to this much trouble to drive around in a car that uses soybean oil, they ought to be exempt from state taxes," ...

my question to him would be "why?"

[originalpckelly]

35. Because it is in the public interest to promote alternative fuels...

if we cut or eliminate taxes on fuels that are alternatives to foreign oil, it won't result in that much of a reduction in revenue because the number of people who will not pay the tax is relatively small. When the number of people using the exemption gets larger, thus signifying an increased use of alternative fuels, then the taxes can be re-applied in proportion to the number of people using the alternative fuels.

It's like a store putting something on sale to encourage its customers to buy, only in this case it's the public.

[dysfunctional press]

56. but the roads still have to be paid for...

otherwise- what will the alternative-fuel vehicles travel on?

[Ikonoklast]

45. You have it completely backwards

The Federal Road Use and State Fuel taxes that I pay each year are used to maintain not only the public roads, but bike paths, light rail, and public transport in many states that I'm apportioned to drive in. If anything, trucks pay a higher percentage per mile driven in any jurisdiction in this country than automobiles. Our share of the tax burden is out of proportion to miles driven in any state.

I have paid over $18K in road use and fuel taxes some years. My taxes paid in many states makes up for the shortfall charged local citizens. It is always easier for a state legislature to tag out-of-state truckers with the majority of a fuel tax increase, instead of the taxpayers of that state. Truckers have always been seen as an easy mark by states that want to generate revenue without making their own constituents pay for it.

In New York State, for example, it costs me close to .40 a mile to drive in that state.

Just for taxes.

State fuel taxes are RARELY used only for repair; it is a scandal in some states that use the tax money for their pet projects, and not for road maintenance. Kansas recently had a dust-up when Gov. Sibelius wanted to use road and fuel taxes for community colleges. Those are not slush funds for pet projects; they are funds that should be used for road building and repair.

And 'one heavy truck' does not damage the road surface like a thousand cars would. Legally acceptable ground pressure per square inch formulas are engineering principals adhered to in road construction practices throughout the U.S. and Canada. There is a reason for the 80K weight limit and bridge laws, as that is the standard to which these roads are built. If the road does not stand up to these limits, then somebody either goofed on the math or scrimped on materials.

Shoddily built and maintained roads, however, always seem to be built by a contractor with close ties to the Statehouse, for some odd reason.

[bullwinkle428]

24. This case brings to mind the old bumper sticker, which I'm guessing freeper-types like:

"Don't steal...the government hates competition!"

Although I totally believe that this isn't anything that could be remotely compared to stealing! This is just pathetic...they did this to an elderly couple in Illinois as well - it was discussed here a few months back.

[Irreverend IX]

28. This calls for an "I'm Spartacus" defense

Everyone who's environmentally concerned should put on a bumper sticker claiming they use biodiesel. Or maybe just something like "Biodiesel: The Way of the Future" that suggests they use it without explicitly stating it. Then when the government slaps them with fines, all people with stickers who didn't really use biodiesel can strike back with a massive class action lawsuit. That should get them to cool their jets for a while.

[dweller]

43. now that's an idea

start a thread on it, find the support. I'll get a sticker.

dp

[sl8]

47. "I'm Spartacus" defense - I like it

But, I'm not sure that it's appropriate in this case.

There may be occasions when your conscience demands that you disobey the law, but I don't think that avoiding the road tax is such an occasion (I'd guess that the gentleman in question had no such "nefarious" motives, but only overlooked the applicable laws).

I think that working to change the law so that it would encourage experimentation with alternative fuels would be a better alternative.

Still, the concept of an "I'm Spartacus" defense is wonderful. It reminds me of the stories of King Christian and his fellow Danes donning the yellow star. I just think that that defense is better reserved for more lofty goals.

[The Backlash Cometh]

31. Why isn't the government going after the oil corps. for failing to pay their taxes?

Oh, maybe it's because Congress keeps finding a way to cutback their taxes?

[jtrockville]

32. Anyone making $$$ hand-over-fist is exempt from taxation.

[nosmokes]

39. I wonder if theoretically he could use a double taxation argument?

taxes have been paid on the grease twice already, including the fuel used to transport it. seems to me that now it's being burned and it's a zero carbon addition it's more than done it's duty and paid it's way. But a double taxation argument is something the bureaucrats might be able to wrap their heads around.

[Johonny]

40. I don't understand why he doesn't just pay the tax?

At 29 cents a gallon he still gets very cheap fuel and avoids the 1000 fine.

[Pavulon]

42. he is not using off road diesel``

A habit many farmers pick up. He should be left alone. He could use a 90 10 mix of oil and #2 diesel and bypass this.

Lesson is to leave off the sticker and just bootleg it.

NC's tax is double sc's tax for fuel.

[Initech]

41. Oil companies make $100,000,000 / day and pay no taxes on it.

So why do we? And this guy got screwed.

[tammywammy]

46. He should pay

I use biodiesel, and when I fill up on it, I know I'm paying a fuel tax, eventhough it's all soybean going in. "shrug: And I should, I use the road ways.

[dionysus]

53. are you serious? he makes his own fuel!!

tax him for that why?

[tammywammy]

57. He uses the roads

That's what the tax is for.

[Patsy Stone]

48. How can you be taxed for a product you don't use?

I think I'm confused.

[proud2BlibKansan]

50. There's a guy here with a bumper sticker that says