Julia Fuels Change
Willie Nelson, Morgan Freeman, Julia Roberts, and Rusty Wallace see cause to back cleaner burning, renewable plant-based fuels.
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By Norman Clausen October 2, 2006
 Mother Earth is trying desperately to tell us something. She’s cried for help, and cried again in pain until the rivers were flooded with her tears. She’s screamed until her voice was hoarse, and the crops grew as dry as her throat. She’s thrown temper tantrums, wildfires in her eyes, huffing and puffing with hurricane force, and still she can’t get our attention.
If the world won’t heed the call of its Mother, whom will it follow? When it comes right down to it, no matter how loud you scream, nobody is listening. That’s why every worthy cause needs a champion. Someone who’s willing to stand up and scream just like you, but do it on television in front of 20 million people—someone to rally around—someone to make you proud to be a part of something, and help you realize that you’re not the only one that cares.
And you should be proud to know you’re not the only one that cares. Willie Nelson cares. Morgan Freeman cares. Julia Roberts cares. It seems like Mother Earth is finally getting her voice back, and the rallying call is soon at hand.
This July, Julia Roberts became the most recent high-profile supporter of the alternative fuels movement. Roberts will join fellow Oscar-winner Morgan Freeman and country music legend Willie Nelson as spokesperson and member of the advisory board for Earth Biofuels. The Dallas-based biofuels company is the exclusive distributor of Willie’s signature brand of soy-based biodiesel, known as BioWillie.
“It’s very important that we expand our use of clean energy and make a long-term commitment to it,” Roberts said in a statement. “Biodiesel and ethanol are better for the environment and for the air we breathe.”
BioWillie B20 combines 20% renewable vegetable-based diesel fuel with 80% traditional diesel, and can be used in almost any diesel engine without modification. The result is a cleaner burning, American-farmed renewable fuel, that results in 80% lower carbon emissions and 100% lower sulfur dioxide—the element that creates acid rain.
Getting the blend up to B100 would be the ultimate goal. Media director for Earth Biofuels, Rob Reed told HLNYC, “Willie has run his Mercedes Diesel and his tour bus on B100 for the past couple of years. He’s become something of a father figure for biofuels in the U.S.” A widely distributed B100 would represent the nation’s ability to go completely sustainable and run off a much cleaner and fully biodegradable fuel, while completely exchanging our dependence on foreign oil for the financial benefit of American farmers. Unfortunately soybeans are not at a supply level that makes a mass-marketed consumer B100 a possibility, but B20 is a huge step in the right direction.
“It’s important because we are going around the world starting wars over oil, and we don’t have to do that,” Willie has said. “We can grow our own fuel here at home, help our farmers, help our environment, help the truckers . . . help the local communities.”
While Willie has been tied to the cause for years, Roberts is somewhat new to the biofuels concept—possibly spurred by her current grudge against the oil industry. She began fighting the oil conglomerates in April when they attempted to drill in the 100,000-acre Valle Vidal Wildlife Sanctuary near her New Mexico ranch.
“Julia had been using biodiesel off and on at their ranch, but the supply can be limited,” said Reed from Earth Biofuels. “She started talking about the possibilities of making that supply available to school buses, and so we’ve got a program under development that’s targeted at providing a healthier learning environment for school kids.”
No doubt inspired by the birth of her 22-month-old twins, Julia has recently begun collaborating with Earth Biofuels on their school bus initiative. Together, they’ll strive to encourage the use of the cleaner, safer biodiesel in the 500,000 diesel school buses in operation across the United States.
“The use of biodiesel is a positive step toward minimizing pollutive emissions and greenhouse gases,” Roberts said. “By focusing on school buses, we can affect the health and wellbeing of the people most susceptible to that pollution—our children—today.”
On a more general level, however, Roberts has gone through something of an environmental awakening, showing the nation it’s never too late to make a difference. Currently building a solar-powered home in California, Julia reportedly drives her hybrid Toyota Prius to the coffee shop where she reuses her own mug, or to the grocery store where she reuses her grocery bags to pick up biodegradable diapers. Think globally; act locally, they say.
Morgan Freeman is the epitome of that mantra. A passionate Mississippi native, Freeman first learned about biodiesel because of the state’s large soy crop. Earth Biofuels was originally founded in Jackson Mississippi, and Freeman was intrigued, seeing the biofuels industry as a means to do something great for the environment, while helping to stimulate the sluggish economy of his home state. “It’s kind of a coincidence that he’s a celebrity,” Reed said, “He’s just really passionate about Mississippi, and he’s passionate about the environment.”
“I firmly believe that alternative fuel supplies need to be developed to allow the United States to wean itself off of its significant dependence on foreign oil,” Freeman has said. “Moreover, I feel that our development of alternative sources such as biodiesel fuel will help the environment, farmers, and the economy in general.”
This could be the start of something big. Let’s face it. Alternative energy is something that professors and intellectuals speak about in their ivory towers. Julia Roberts or Willie Nelson’s involvement in the alternative energy field is something that you talk about around the kitchen table. And it’s picking up steam. As of August 28th, renowned NASCAR driver, Rusty Wallace became the most recent outspoken celebrity to join the Earth Biofuels pit crew. That’s going to open a whole lot of eyes in the red states.
Think globally; act locally, right? The beauty is that when people like Julia or Willie decide to think locally, they can act globally. Their actions and their voices create a shift in awareness, and create a demand for a whole new market. Cause us all to stand up and question, “Why? Why don’t we have an alternative? Why can’t we help the environment? Why can’t we stop the foreign wars for oil?”
Say what you will about celebrities and their fair-weather causes, but nobody in Hollywood (and certainly nobody in Congress) has had the courage to stand up against Big Oil since Ed Begley Jr. showed up at awards shows in his electric car ten years ago. And while he was on the right track, it wasn’t the right time. People weren’t ready, so unfortunately his stunts provoked less thought than ridicule. But we’re ready, now. We’re ready for someone to stand up and take charge. Someone like Morgan Freeman, who has the respect of a nation, or a walking legend like Willie Nelson, or a pretty woman, who is as much glamorous American icon, as she is down-to-earth wife and mother.
“For the first time in my life, I got people respecting me,” said Roberts in her Oscar-winning portrayal of Erin Brockovich, champion of environmental justice, “please don’t ask me to give it up.”
We hope you never do.
To learn more about Earth Biofuels, go to: earthbiofuels.com
Or check out our full interview with Rob Reed, of Earth Biofuels.
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