Forget cooking; priest uses vegetable oil as car fuel

Published: 2004-09-27

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (CNS) -- What's silver, goes 70 mph and smells like a Fry Daddy in Lent? In Jefferson City, it could be Father Tom Alber's car. Just as gas prices started going through the roof, Father Alber accepted a new assignment requiring extensive travel. Covering for sick or vacationing priests and celebrating Spanish-language Masses in far-flung parishes meant he was driving, on average, about 200 miles each weekend. "Add the meetings ... and a trip home once in a while and I was spending $200 a month on gasoline," said the priest, who is in residence at Immaculate Conception Parish in Jefferson City. The cost and his own curiosity led him to investigate affordable alternative fuels. Before long, he was looking into the renewable resource technology offered by the diesel engine. The priest did a lot of research and then bought a 1978 car "with only 384,000 miles" and a diesel engine that seemed to suit his needs. For fuel, he was given 250 gallons of vegetable oil from Father Joe Hoi after a parish fish fry in Owensville.

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