When the price of fuel started its monumental climb a few months ago, The Influence, a Virginia Beach-based band, started looking for alternative ways to travel. Their solution: a tour bus converted to run on waste vegetable oil. “[Travel] was eating up any profits we might have made at any shows,” said Dave Cogan, The Influence’s manager, who is from Falls Church. The engine on The Influence’s tour bus is now from Grease Car, a
New England-based company that converts diesel engines to run on waste vegetable oil from restaurants. Falls Churchbased Bubba’s Restaurant and Old Hickory Grill provide their waste vegetable oil to the band whenever they come through the D.C. area. “The bus is able to run most of the time on waste vegetable oil, although it also converts to regular diesel if you can’t find [vegetable oil],” Cogan said. “Sometimes when it’s in the mountains or if they’re driving it at high rates of speeds and the engine needs to be running
most efficiently, they have to shift back over to diesel. It’s this little onboard computer that does it automatically.” While not everyone can convert their vehicles to a more efficient engine, other musicians are also using alternate means of transportation. In a recent trip to Charlotte, N.C., Shane Hines, of Shane Hines and the Trance, and his road manager took an SUV instead of their normal 15-passanger van. “Normally we would take the van but because of the gas, Continued on Page 25
The former national chairman of the Democratic Party who ran Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign this year told 200 Democratic activists in Fairfax County Tuesday that Virginia Governor Tim Kaine would be his party’s best choice as Barack Obama’s vice presidential running mate. Terry McAuliffe brought his articulate, high energy speaking style to the monthly meeting of the Fairfax County Democratic Committee at Oakton High School, to, among other things, “make no mistake” that his party leadership considers Virginia “a battleground state” in the 100 days left to fight it out for the presidency this fall. “The fact that we’ve opened 33 offices around the state should remove all doubt” about how important Virginia is perceived to be for winning the election, he said. “We’ve leased them all through November,” he added. Although Virginia hasn’t gone for a Democratic presidential nominee since 1964, and until recently was considered a solid “red,” or Republican, state, the last three statewide elections for U.S. Senate and governor have all gone to the Democratic candidate. Obama will have the benefit of having on the slate with him in Virginia a strong and popular Democrat running for the U.S. Senate, former Governor Mark Warner, with the demonstrated ability to win support among Republican voters. So far, the campaign of preContinued on Page 4