by CHRIS BARRY

Name: Kory Goldberg

Age: 30

Occupation: CEGEP professor

Bio: This dreamy Frelighsburg hunk had been hanging out in India, Burma and Nepal for several years studying Pali, an ancient Indian language, before returning to Quebec last year to set up shop in the Eastern Townships. Finding work as a humanities prof at Champlain College in St-Lambert, Kory soon figured out he was going to need transportation for the twice-weekly commute and decided, “If I had to own a car, I wanted one with the least environmental impact possible.” After considerable Internet research he finally opted to purchase a mid-90s Volkswagen Jetta with a diesel engine and adapt it to run on a veggie oil system developed by a B.C. company called Plant Drive. Costing him roughly $1,600 and two days’ labour installing the system, Kory’s Jetta now gets approximately 800 kilometres per tank of veggie oil, and costs him “about 80 per cent less” than a traditional diesel-powered car would otherwise. “I figure I’ve made my initial investment back with maybe one year of driving. And if I can keep this car for several years, well, the savings are enormous.” He’s also the proud father of an eight-week-old bouncing baby boy, Jai.

Is it safe to assume his veggie oil vehicle is pollution-free? No. “But the emissions are somewhere between 25 and 40 per cent less polluting. And hey, that’s significant. The other thing is the oil—be it corn, canola or soy—it’s all produced in North America. So I’m not relying on petroleum products from the Middle East, and to me, at least, that’s pretty important.”

Is that because he despises the people of the Middle East and figures depriving them of their one major export commodity will help put them back in their rightful pre-OPEC place of have-not nations? “Um, not exactly. I just like the idea of buying as locally as possible—which is consistent with my environmental ethos. And also, these oils are renewable resources, which grow easily and quickly. Even better, of course, is here I am, able to transform a waste product into fuel. And it feels great being free of the grip the big oil companies have over automobile consumers.”

Where he gets the waste product to power his vehicle: Most of it comes from a Chinese restaurant on the South Shore.

The number of restaurant owners who looked at him like he was out of his mind before finding his current supplier of leftover cooking oil? Zero. “Sure, they looked at me funny when I told them what it was for and said, ‘Oh yeah, that won’t work,’ but they were still very happy to give it to me. Before they had to pay to have it taken away.”

Does his exhaust smell like French fries? “Nah, probably more like egg roll.”

Musical preferences: Jerry Garcia, Vivaldi, Johnny Cash.

Last book read: Diaper Free! The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene by Ingrid Bauer

Words of wisdom: “There’s two options in life, to be right, or to be happy.”

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