News-Record.com

Sen. Stan Bingham was recently visited by a crew from CBS news who wanted to interview him about his veggie car and a recent dust-up over alternative fuels. Bingham runs his 2006 Beetle in part on old grease he garners from the legislative cafeteria.

The problem he and other veggie-car drivers faces is that the tax man wants his cut. North Carolina and the feds levy motor fuel taxes, no matter what fuels your motor. Since one doesn't remit when draining the dregs out of the frialator or picking up a bucket-o-peanut oil from the Costco, the taxing authorities miss out.

I missed Bingham's big appearance if it went down and haven't seen video elsewhere on the tubes.

But Bingham gave a rundown of his visit with the news crew to colleagues last week. (Click to listen).

He was philosophical when asked about his evasion of highway use tax.

"Actually that was the purpose of their coming down here. And discussing this with George Givens, it was brought up about federal tax. So now I see when I finish time in the state penitentiary I guess I'll go to the federal one as well," Bingham said.

More on alternative fuels here and here.

And if someone runs across a link to the vide of his appearance, drop me a line in the comments section.