Yesterday while I was out having coffee with a friend, the general manager of a local upscale hotel in Juneau, I was mightily pleased with a bit of information I hadn't known.

Some years back their resident engineer suggested it and they bought a converter for the hotel's use and they buy all the used oil (fryer oil) they can get. They go out twice a week and haul it in 50 gallon drums.

It has had a definite impact on their heating bills. I don't know how many rooms the hotel has but there are 11 floors. For a city that requires providing heat essentially all year around that is a wonderful thing.

He said that he has talked with the cruiseship industry and so far they have not come up with a way to for them to let him have their used oil; instead they haul it back to Seattle and do something with it there. He said that he hasn't given up- he said that if he had that on top of what they already have they would need very little oil from the market.

By the way, he said that early on he talked with a donut shop in town about the possibility of getting their oil and they said they use something like 50 gallons a day - but there is nothing left over. It all goes into the goodies. Whew.