Tax sucks life out of biofuels.

• Position: Triangle

For nearly three years, Stan Bingham has been driving around in a Volkswagen he modified to run on used vegetable oil, which the Republican state senator from Denton gets free from the General Assembly cafeteria. His bug gets more than 40 miles a gallon on it, but he has to filter the oil and start trips on diesel until the engine heats it up enough to use as fuel. A few miles before stopping, he has to remember to switch back to diesel to flush the fuel lines. Otherwise, the oil cools, gels and clogs them. "It's really quite a chore to do this," the lawmaker admits.

But weaning folks from fossil fuels onto biofuels--those made from renewable biological sources--could make North Carolina more self-sufficient and create jobs. So lawmakers pushed through the Strategic Plan for Biofuels Leadership in 2006. It mandates that, by 2017, 10% of liquid fuels sold in the state--about 560 million gallons, using current consumption levels--come from biofuels grown or produced here. Even Bingham is skeptical. "I don't know that we'll ever meet those goals--we'll just have to change them."

The legislature appropriated $5 million to start the nonprofit Biofuels Center of North Carolina, which opened earlier this year in Oxford. It's supposed to support research, improve production, train workers and shape public policy and perception. It has a long row to hoe. Automakers don't build vehicles that run on pure vegetable oil, though diesel vehicles will run on biodiesel blends. Biofuels often cost more than gasoline, and they're not...