- NEWS
- Music stars turn out for Grammy Awards 17 minutes ago
- Ballet competitors strive to be best 3 hours & 52 minutes ago
- Obama to visit Corona del Mar on Thursday 1 hour & 13 minutes ago
- 142 big O.C. buildings are ‘distressed’
- SPORTS
- Lakers edge past Toronto, end trip 3-3 1 hour & 22 minutes ago
- Perry’s hat trick too much for Jackets 1 hour & 20 minutes ago
- Ex-Angel Hudler joins K.C. Royals TV booth 1 hour & 25 minutes ago
- Force uses tactic to hoodwink Neff 1 hour & 16 minutes ago
- BUSINESS
- ENTERTAINMENT
- LIFE
- TRAVEL
- OPINION
Kick America’s oil addiction? We can do it, says film screening in Irvine
February 19th, 2009, 6:08 pm · 19 Comments · posted by Pat Brennan, science, environment editor
Anger at oil companies: check. Linking refinery pollution to disease and illness: check. A long road trip in a wildly painted alternative-fuel vehicle: check.
So far, the new documentary, “FUEL,” which opens in Irvine on Friday, might sound like a lot of other films that deplore our reliance on petroleum and our inability to shake the addiction.
But Los Angeles director Josh Tickell is just getting started. The main theme of the 111-minute movie isn’t an attack on oil companies, or even promotion of biodiesel, the alternative fuel made from vegetable oil that Tickell once tried to push by driving his “Veggie Van” cross country . (Photo of Tickell and his van courtesy of Tickell.)
Instead, it’s to persuade people of something Tickell fervently believes: we can do it.
“It’s not a hippie movie,” Tickell said Thursday as he prepared for the Irvine showing. The film, being released independently, is working its way down the U.S. West Coast, and will be shown in New York.
The film includes plenty of star power, with appearances by Julia Roberts, Sheryl Crow, Richard Branson and others, and Tickell appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Monday to promote it.
Tickell begins his story — both in the film and in an interview — with his upbringing in Louisiana, among an intense concentration of oil refineries: some 150 within a 100 mile area.
His mother suffered nine miscarriages, and Tickell suggests this, as well as cancer and other maladies suffered by people living in the region, was a product of refinery emissions.
“What was going on in my back yard spurs a 10-year journey that I take in the movie to look at alternative energy,” Tickell said. ”I spend a lot of time looking at biodiesel, in real time. We began filming the movie in 1997 and continued filming until very, very recently.”
Biodiesel suffers setbacks, though it still ends up being offered as a possible solution in the film. But Tickell says his message is bigger than that.
“The real takeaway from the movie is that there’s no silver-bullet solution,” Tickell says. Instead, America — and the world — should embrace a variety of alternative fuel technologies, be they biodiesel, wind energy, solar power or hybrid vehicles.
“Having traveled all over the world for 10 years, earnestly looking for solutions, my perspective on it is that all the technology exists,” he says. “Even the manufacturing capacity for the technology exists. For most viewers, the takeaway is, ‘We can do it.’ It’s not so much a shift in technology as it is a shift in community action and policy.”
The film will be shown at the Edwards University Town Center 6, 4245 Campus Drive, beginning at 2 p.m. Friday. Tickell will be take part in a question and answer session after the 7:30 p.m. showing.
- UCI expert: stimulus could bring cleaner air to OC
- OC’s stim wish-list: more green construction, more jobs
- For kids, a greener forecast for 2030
- Restoring OC’s natural landscape — and not a chemical in sight
- Wildlife partnership meets — in the wilds of OC
- Sewage sludge on wildfire areas? Not this time
- Global warming: bad news for birds
- Water testing wells being drilled in Santa Ana
- UC Irvine students win “Crazy Green Idea” contest
- How toxic is your commute? New pollution study seeks answers
- $30 million youth camp receives $10 million donation
- No-fishing zones off OC? The discussion begins.
- Live online: owl lays eggs while webcam watches
- Budget crisis could halt Newport Bay dredging
- Former El Morro trailer park is latest victim of budget crisis
- OC driver’s Tesla draws a crowd at green expo
- Green for rent: apartments are a first for OC
Reader Comments
Comments are encouraged, but you must follow our User Agreement.- Keep it civil and stay on topic.
- No profanity, vulgarity, racial slurs or personal attacks.
- People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked.
19 Comments
-
ADVERTISEMENT
-
-
-
-
16th annual People’s Choice
From your favorite restaurants and shops to the best day spa in town, here are your choices for the number one places to eat, shop and play in O.C.
Browse the 2009 Best of Orange County winners-
ADVERTISEMENT
There could be a bunch of alternatives. The problem is congress likes to take campaign contributions from big oil, so when it comes time to vote, they do whatever they say and screw the voters. Then next election, voters re-elect the same clowns every time. Get a clue people.
I don’t care what my truck runs on. It could run on cat piss for all I care. But I’m not driving a shoe box that only goes 50 miles. I need a truck for tools and to tow things like a concrete mixer for work. If it can’t do that, it’s worthless to me.
WOW. This is GREAT. We only need 20,600,000 barrels of this stuff a day & we can kiss oil GOOD BY!
I say, have the messiah mandate that every man woman & child eat 460 lbs. of french fries a day. That should do it according to my calculations.
PROBLEM SOLVED. Now, by stock in potato farms before my idea gets out & you’ll be rich beyond your wildest dreams.
Better add another 4 mill. barrels for the potato farmers tractors, but this can work.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Julia Roberts, Sheryl Crow, Richard Branson and the other movie stars will fly in on there private jets ride around in there limousines and we get stimulated by O-bankrupt-U and double crossed by the swartzsnigger.
Or better yet, the messiah can get ACORN to protest every city in southern california, which does not outlaw every car. That way everyone would be forced to get mugged on a bus or train. And if one does not wish to be mugged, they would always have the “choice” of walking to their destination. The latter would also serve a secondary purpose. There are way too many fat people here anyway. They could do it little by little, the very same way they handled smoking.
Problem solved: We need to go back to the days of using horses like we used to do back in the old days! They were smart cowboys back then!
I cut my gasoline consumtion by 90%
I take transit and walk everywhere
I drive my 72 Nova once a month and do all my heavy shopping in one trip
If I can cut 90% why cant others cut at least 40%?
To WHATALOADOFCRAP
Taken both bus and train and walked for 7 years
Never got mugged
I do stay away from areas where I could get mugged
Nuclear power is a proven, viable, “Made in USA” form of energy that produces no CO2that can even make hydrogen powered cars practical.
Tax Payer; I have a little doubt about the amount of “taxes” you actually pay. Care to elaborate???????????????????
Myself, being in the $40K range(that would be amount paid, not gross income), Would like to know.
This is a relevant question since you seem to have “the answer” to saving the planet.
Also, how do i haul 10K lbs. of equipment to LA, Riverside, orange & San Diego County’s w/ public buses?
I saw FUEL last weekend and found its message to be one of hope for the future. It offers really tangible ways that we can all make small changes in our life and really make a difference in our environment. Supporting Obama’s new green economy doesn’t just add jobs to get people back to work, but it also helps us build a sustainable future for our kids. There are all sorts of creative ways we can do this from biodiesel made from algae to urban vertical gardens!
If you haven’t seen the movie, you should! It’s a great story and proof that one person CAN make a difference.
I saw this film and thought it presented some interesting options, but most importantly it clearly explained why we can’t keep doing what we’re doing now. The reason to change isn’t about who you voted for or whether you believe actors or not – it’s about the fact that our current fuel source is running out.
Wow, after reading some of these comments I wonder if anybody actually does a little research before they voice they’re opinions. FUEL is an excellent film that is filled with positive ideas on how to preserve the planet on which we are living. The movie is not just about how to run our vehicles on biodiesel but suggests many ways we could reduce our oil consumption which is not a bad thing. Josh Trickell’s film even found a way to create a vertical farm that could feed something like 50k people while using less resources. He even has a way to create more jobs and I am sure the 8% of Americans who are currently unemployed would be grateful. The majority of the U.S. population became very vocal about the rising gas prices and guess what, they are on the rise again. Josh Trickell is giving us some solutions and it would not hurt to consider some of the possibilties because we are not getting anywhere continuing on the path we are on.
As for the movie stars in the film, there are countless people in the entertainment business who live mostly green lives. Their homes are green, they drive fuel effecient cars, they donnate money to green research and are generally doing their part to support solutions rather than contribute to the problem.
Educate yourselves and check out http://www.yousendit.com/download/U0d3blRxbEowVWxMWEE9PQ
Dear OC Locals,
Let’s not talk about saving the planet, but saving ourselves. The planet will be here for another billion years with or with out us. If you think you will ever have grandkids, please read on. But first take off that Orange curtain that is wrapped around your head like an Afghani Zealot. It obscures your eyes and ears but lets your voice be heard oh so clearly. If you saw the movie or read any info on the discussion and latest breakthroughs, you would know that…
Everything that makes your Orange Magical Kingdom work is transported to you on giant ships and trucks that are all diesel! And all could run on biodiesel with out conversion of the existing engines… and not water juziling, rainforest bulldozing corn or soy bean bio but with algae! Grown in your own Orange waste water, from washing your Arab supporting SUV’s. This could easily replace GASOLINE! Not just Gas but plastic made existence, or anything else made with oil that “we” now have to drill hundreds of money sucking feet below the earth’s surface for.
This will not happen tomorrow. But Kennedy got America to the moon in a super fast time with technology that had yet to be invented. This was done all in the name of National security!! Is our Nation secure now? With the right funding and support we could tell the Arab world to go BLEEP themselves in less time than Kennedy went to the Moon! the tech is already here… it just needs perfection…
Thanks for taking off your turbans and reading my rant. God Bless your grandchildren if there is one. God bless Mickey Mouse, I love the that little cute mother…
The movie or idea of green fuel isn’t to make everybody change overnight, but to get a generation of youth thinking about alternatives to dirty oil. Oil has been great for this country in many ways, starting with the industrial revolution but for the obvious reasons of smog, pollutants, and wars are cause for a change.
If you need a truck to haul that heavy equipment, no problem, there are plenty of guys running their Ford, Dodge, Chevy diesels on recycled veg oil, or bio diesel which is a chemically modified vegetable oil. I run my car on recycled veg oil that I get from a local fish taco place, but this alternative is definitely NOT for everybody. I can pull in, drop a hose in their barrel that I gave them to pull 55 gallons in about 15 minutes, take it home and filter it, which takes about 30 minutes and be ready for fuel, but not many would do this, even for free fuel. Its is NOT the solution for 99% of people.
But, but, but, algae which can be made easily, cheaply and efficiently can also produce an ethanol that could burn in any gas car or biodiesel which could work in any diesel. All the industry needs is an efficient way to separate the algae from the water its grown in and that person or company will be bigger than any oil company out there. They also need to streamline the process of turning the oil-rich algae into ethanol or biodiesel. A dozen or so companies are doing it, but we need inventive engineers, to be doing this work. Home brewers have been making algae ethanol since the 70′s but it was never efficient because no one with real knowledge, inventiveness, or backing has done it.
This movie just gives the public another opportunity to see what could be possible. The U.S. is known for inventive ingenuity, and this movie helps to provoke solutions out of its viewers.
So your answer is to do nothing?
The film is talking about all the alternatives, the article says right in there that he knows that one solution isn’t the silver bullet. I watched an interview with him, he’s quite adament it seems that no one thing will work.
Instead he wants us all to know that the technology is there to make a difference and he wants to show off some of the ways it is possible. I hope more people get out to see this movie, if only to just see what other options are out there. Will one thing solve it all? No. Will one solutions work for every person? Most likely not. But if we all did all we can, will the world be better for the generations that follow? Most certainly.
Is getting educated and/or trying to spread that education such a bad idea? Go see the movie, at least to see what options are out there. Will they work for you? You won’t really know unless you try.
These comments are funny.
FUEL is an uplifting, inspiring film that shows people how they can take steps today to make for a sustainable planet. The movie is entertaining, keeping you intrigued, despite it’s run time. I recommend this film to environmentalists and non-environmentalists alike.
For example, had “never ending fight for freedom” actually seen this film, he would know that the type of large pickups that he uses for his business to haul equipment can actually run on clean, renewable, domestically-produced biodiesel.
“Fuel” is a great inspirational call to action.
Do invite your friends and family to go see it.
I am in the renewable fuels and energy business and I have come to understand that any new technology will have a lead time for introduction to the public and then slow and steady adoption towards
wider usage. That can be ten to fifteen years of introduction and development. But there are most certainly good answers currently
being introduced and developed. There are.
If our social structure and the public had become informed about energy earlier (like say after the 1970′s oil embargo) and started insisting on and supporting development…………commuters would already be driving reasonably priced, inexpensive to fuel electric cars,
and algenol biofuels produced on an industrial scale could possibly be fueling load carrying utility vehicles.
If we the public, and we the people, had paid more attention to things that were visibly happening in our financial world over the last 20 years………then less people would be suffering from the current economic ravages. And………if we deal with the current signs and messages and messages and messages about global warming…….and the need for wise changes…………
Then perhaps we can avoid the widespread social uphevals that global warming effects can bring 15-20 years down the road.
Think about it !!
Ignorance or head burrying in the sand and inaction are not the only options we have.
And the engines of demoracy do not run on lack of good and studied information.
We are “the home of the brave and the land of the free” and good leadership from the public would be a strong thing.
Also freedom from foreign oil would be a Christmas present to ourselves for many years to come.
First, I haven’t seen the movie. Second, I am a conservative, God fearing, “redneck” with an MBA in finance. I own my own biz with 46 employees. I am very concerned about American’s future. We must take back the tremendous economic power that OPEC has gained over our economic wellbeing. We have to come up with a way to be self sufficient for our energy needs. Drill, Baby Drill is fine to buy us some time but that can not be where we are going. We need to get at ,right now ,building more nuclear plants as electric cars are coming quickly. And by all means, let’s also get some great minds working on growing our fuel but in responsible way and not by exploding the price of the food we eat. Algee farms sound do-able with all the oceans in the world, if done on a large enough scale to be economically viable. Wind power, fuel cells, whatever is worth pursuing too. With a LITTLE govt. help we can launch some excellent new industries. Living in the past will no longer do, lets get our creative entrepreneurs on this problem.