A hemp powered car will tour N.America promoting environmental fuels and drug law reform.

A hemp powered car will be touring N. America this summer. It's
goal is to prove the viability of hemp as fuel, and promote
environmental fuel technologies and drug law reform.

The car will attend environmental festivals, such as SolFest, and
drug law reform events.

Biofuels have been gaining popularity recently. Joshua and Kaia
Tickell toured America using fryer grease to power their van.
[http://www.veggievan.org ]. This is a great idea for recycling
oil. Biodiesel can be used in any unmodified diesel engine. Hemp
Car will be using hemp oil converted into biodiesel. This is a
monumental task, as hemp is illegal to grow in the U.S. and the
oil is extremely expensive. The Hemp Car crew say they chose to
use hemp because of it's potential to replace petrol fuels. It is
estimated that if 6% of America's marginal land was planted over
with hemp, it could provide for all of America's energy needs.
Pyrolysis is the technology which makes this possible. Pyrolysis
is a method that heats plant matter in an oxygen-free
environment. The plant matter is reduced to individual
constituents such as; combustible gases, condensable liquids,
oil, and char. All of these constituents can be used as fuel.
Lynn Osburn wrote an excellent paper on biomass fuels entitled,
"Energy Farming in America" (1).

(1)
http://www.globalhemp.com/Archives/Essays/Biofuel/energy_farming_in_amer...

The hemp plant has no psychoactive properties. Cultivating hemp
can help replenish spent soil. Hemp can grow almost anywhere, and
requires far less pesticides than many other cash crops, such as
cotton. Hemp can be used for fuel, fiber, food, medicine, and
industry. Hemp seed is highly nutritious. Hemp fiber is durable
and strong. Extractums made from hemp were a valued medicine for
thousands of years, but prohibition in the 1930s ended all of
that. Why was this valuable renewable resource prohibited?
Evidence suggests a special-interest group that included the
DuPont petrochemical company, Secretary of the Treasury Andrew
Mellon (Dupont's major financial backer), and the newspaper man
William Randolph Hearst mounted a yellow journalism campaign
against hemp. Hearst deliberately confused psychoactive marijuana
with industrial hemp, one of humankind's oldest and most useful
resources. DuPont and Hearst were heavily invested in timber and
petroleum resources, and saw hemp as a threat to their empires.
Petroleum companies also knew that petroleum emits noxious, toxic
byproducts when incompletely burned, as in an auto engine. In
1937 DuPont, Mellen and Hearst were able to push a "marijuana"
prohibition bill through Congress in less than three months,
which destroyed the domestic hemp industry.

Fear driven myths about hemp and marijuana have kept these plants
from providing society with much needed alternatives to current
consumer habits. Hemp Car hopes to help expel these myths and
show the true hemp plant to N.American society. Canada's recent
withdraw of hemp prohibition is a big step toward global reform.
People must keep working to see common sense become reality. If
you are interested in Hemp Car, check out their website:
http://www.hempcar.org Information about hemp and marijuana may
be found at: http://www.jackherer.com