The Scent of Fries: The Big Green Bus pulls into Portland

The great American college road trip has gone green.

On Friday the Big Green Bus pulls into Portland, rounding out a 10-week, 37-city tour. They'll be setting-up on Market Street in Portland outside Corduroy Boutique starting at 6 p.m. Call it edu-tainment or environmentalism. And to paraphrase Bon Jovi, they've seen a million faces and they rocked them all. You know ... with knowledge.

For the group of college kids who run the bus, it's just been fun.

"Traveling around America has been incredible, actually," said Kawakahi Amina, a member of the bus's crew.

The mission of the bus is a simple one: use a big working example to show that alternative energy sources don't have to be complex or confusing. And you won't find a bigger working model than a 1989 MCI motorcoach running off vegetable oil.

"I think for the most part, people are open to the fact that green is the movement of the future," Amina said.

The bus and its crew hail from Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., where the project started several years ago.

Amina and this year's crew started their journey in New York in June and have made their way to places like Huntsville, Ala.; Austin, Tx.; San Francisco; Las Vegas; Omaha, Ne.; and Detroit, among others.

In each city the bus opens up shop and invites locals to learn about sustainable fuels and small-time environmentalism. Small-time? Amina says the idea behind the bus is to show people that simply altering all the small and simple tasks in everyday life can change one person's impact on the environment.

"Our goal is to educate people that they can make small, individual actions that will have a greater impact on the environment," he said.

A bus fit for the road

Don't go out and buy that Prius just yet. Consider what you get if you've got a vegetable oil-powered tour bus fit for Motley Crue. (That is if Motley Crue was into environmental change instead of, you know...hair rock and excess.)

You get a mobile classroom, recently tricked out with goodies like a flat screen TV, computer cases, interactive displays and a kitchen. How's it work? Solar panels collect power for the electrics, including air conditioning. Another way to get people interested in alternative energy? Video games.
"We can play Wii on a solar powered TV," he said.

The school bus days and taking 'A big road trip'

The bus was not always so tour worthy. The original bus, beginning with the maiden voyage in 2004, was a classic school bus. In 2005, Elliot May took on the job of getting the bus back on the road. May, a Dartmouth grad who now works for Reverb and organizes Greendrinks, said the beginnings of the bus were a little selfish but also altruistic.

"My buddies and I wanted to be able to take a big road trip," May joked. But May said they also had a larger interest in service learning and volunteerism. The bus was a way to combine those and spread the message on investing in renewable energy sources.

But that summer was not without bumps. How could rolling around the country in an old school bus retrofitted to run on used deep frier oil not be a risky bet?

"We broke down in Sioux Falls (SD), two and a half weeks into the trip, in 100 degree weather," he said. The fix was not easy after they learned the cost of repairs would pretty much equal the price they paid for the bus.

But they went ahead and patched up the bus. If they were serious about their message and starting a tradition they knew they had to carry on, May said.

What makes the bus such a special project is that it is run solely by students, May said. They decide the stops, find sponsors, drive and repair (when possible) the bus, May said. Without the experience of piecing together that tour May doesn't know where he would be today.

"The big green bus? I pretty much owe (it) everything I have," he said.

The Frialator: Future of fuel?

While energy sources like vegetable oil or bio-diesel may never totally capture the fuel market, it's part of a broader group of alternatives to oil, said Jarmin Kaltas, president of Maine Bio-Fuel in Portland.
Kaltas' company collects used vegetable oil from area restaurants and recycles it for fuel that can be used in cars, trucks and home heating oil tanks.

Getting someone to start thinking of the Frialator the way they think of a Mobil station is going to take time. But things are starting to change. Kaltas said the price of bio-diesel is already comparable to regular diesel and using the fuel takes no or little modifications. And if you think about it, when you're using the oil from places like Duckfat, the Great Lost Bear or Becky's, you're buying local in a way.

"It's just a matter of educating people at this point," Kaltas said. "Portland is very progressive and is ready to jump on to the idea of using bio-diesel."