The Lesson of Kitchen Grease
Here’s a nice example of one of the classic reasons why large organizations struggle so to make high quality decisions.
Dave Eck, a Half Moon Bay, Calif., mechanic, had attracted a media spotlight with his fleet of vehicles fueled by used fryer grease from a local chowder house. So when Sacramento called, he figured officials wanted advice on promoting alternative fuels.
Not at all. The government rang to notify Eck that he was a tax cheat.
He was scolded for failing to get a “diesel fuel supplier’s license,” and for not reporting quarterly how many gallons of grease he burns and paying a tax on each gallon.
“All of a sudden they nailed me for a road tax,” said Eck, who drives a Hummer converted to run on vegetable oil. “I said, ‘Not a problem. I’ll do my part. But what do I get? At least let me into the car-pool lane.’ “
No such luck. The state offered Eck only a potentially large fine — and not just for failing to pay taxes. He also can get in trouble for carting kitchen grease away from eateries without a license from the state Meat and Poultry Inspection Branch.
Or for not having at least $1 million in liability insurance, in case he spills some of the stuff. Or for not getting permission from the state Air Resources Board to burn fat in the first place.
The regulations are so burdensome that even California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, trying to set an example for Californians by driving a Hummer that burns cooking oil, has not complied. Schwarzenegger, who has said the exhaust from his Hummer smells so much like French fries that his passengers get hunger pangs, was unaware that he was required to send Sacramento an 18-cent road tax for every gallon of kitchen oil he burned, according to spokesman Aaron McLear. After the Los Angeles Times raised the issue, McLear said the governor would pay the taxes he owed.
The governor’s staff says it is working on making it easier to drive using vegetable oil without being an outlaw.
Later in the story we read all the reasons why and how each of the agencies involved justify their part in this little drama: someone has to pay for the roads, we can’t just let people haul things around on our roads, what about all those noxious French fry odors, and on it goes. So at the top of the house, the leadership has in mind a transformational goal. Scattered throughout the organization are all those smaller organizations, each with their own mandate, values, and priorities. Unless and until you can get all those priorities aligned, the transformation goes nowhere.
Tags: Biodiesel, CARB, Scharzenegger, Cooking Oil, Hummer, Green, Decision Making