College Students Have Traveled Cross Country on Bus Powered by Vegetable Oil

Yorktown Heights, NY – U.S. Rep. John Hall (D-NY19) along with alternative energy advocates from all over the Hudson Valley today welcomed to Yorktown Heights a group of pioneering college students, who have traveled across the United States on a "Big Green Bus" to promote the use of renewable energy technology.

"While I have been strongly advocating for the increased use of alternative and renewable fuels in Congress, private citizens are also working on practical and innovative solutions to bring more alternative fuels into Americans’ daily lives," said Hall.

The Big Green Bus is a retired school bus retrofitted to run on used vegetable oil and powered by solar panels on its roof. There is also a variety of other eco-friendly and high-efficiency technologies on board, which share space with the living quarters for the bus’s crew of twelve Dartmouth College Students, including John Beardsley of South Salem, NY.

"Advanced vehicles that move us beyond Middle Eastern oil are the future," said Hall, who drives an American-made hybrid. "I've been working in Washington to offer federal incentives for the development of alternative and renewable fuel vehicles. The Big Green Bus is an inspiring example of green energy's capabilities."

Hall, an advocate of renewable energy for 30 years, is a member of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. He was co-founder in 1979 of Musician United for Safe Energy (MUSE), a group that raised over $1 million to give grants to local renewable energy projects around the country. Hall has worked in Congress for legislation to offer federal incentives for the development of alternative and renewable fuel vehicles.

He is a cosponsor of H.R. 589, the Get Real Incentives to Drive Plug-in Act, which provides grants and incentives to encourage the use of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV).  PHEVs can operate using electricity or biofuels, dramatically increasing fuel economy, cutting dependence on foreign oil, and reducing tailpipe emissions. He has also cosponsored H.R. 670, the Dependence Reduction through Innovation in Vehicles and Energy (DRIVE) Act, which establishes a goal of reducing the need for foreign oil by 2.5 million barrels per day, eliminating dependence on Persian Gulf oil by 2015, and by 5 million barrels by 2025.  Toward this goal, the bill would provide tax credits for biofuels, hybrid vehicles, flex-fuel vehicles, and establish measures to increase fuel efficiency and sources of alternative fuels.

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