With Gas Prices High, Biofuel Starts To Make Cents

In the past, touring "green" usually cost artists more greenbacks.

But with fuel prices at record levels, gasoline alternatives like biodiesel, which releases less polluting emissions, are becoming more economical. A wide array of artists are taking advantage.

Likely the biggest commitment to alternative fuel this summer is the Vans Warped tour. Warped will have 17 production buses and 12 trucks, as well as two generators, running on biodiesel this summer.

"We're going with an 80%-20% biodiesel mix," Warped founder/producer Kevin Lyman says. He explains that his biodiesel fuel costs $3.10-$3.20 per gallon, along with a $65-per-hour delivery charge—roughly the same as pure petroleum diesel. At press time, the average price for a gallon of diesel fuel was $2.89, according to the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy. On the West Coast, that figure rose to $3.18.

"I pretty much budgeted the last couple of years with fuel prices at a little over $3, so we're not really too far off from my original budgets," Lyman says. "We're going to end up a little less than what we budgeted back in October."

Willie Nelson recently formed a company with business partners called Willie Nelson's Biodiesel that is marketing a fuel, called BioWillie, made from vegetable oils that can be burned without modification to diesel engines. Nelson, out this summer with John Fogerty, burns BioWillie on his own tour bus.

Trent Hemphill, president/CEO of Hemphill Bros. Coach Co., says he's getting more inquiries about leasing biodiesel tour buses, including a Bonnie Raitt tour he outfitted in the spring.

Other artists, including Ben Harper and Jack Johnson, have been touring in an environmentally conscious manner, including running buses and trucks on biodiesel fuel.

Lyman, who works with tour manager-turned-environmentalist Tim Allyn on the project, and Hemphill both say that utilizing biodiesel creates additional logistical challenges. "I've been working nine months lining up suppliers and distributors and a network of places to fuel up," Lyman says. "We'll be doing a lot of on-site fueling, as well as coordinated fuel stops."

The trucks, leased from Janco Transport of Santa Barbara, Calif., need to be conditioned to handle biodiesel. "The first couple of runs, they go through a couple of extra fuel filters, but once they get used to it, they're fine," Lyman says.

Lyman says the challenges are worth it. "This is more about a commitment to doing something different," he says. "If the Warped tour—arguably the hardest tour on the road if you look at the mileage, the days on, the routing—can pull it off, then maybe we can set some guidelines for the business." ••••