June 30, 2007 - Victoria, BC - Red headed he may be, but Willie Nelson is no stranger to environmental causes.

And the country star didn't stray from the green path while he was in Victoria as he took the opportunity to fill the fuel tanks of his four tour buses with Island biodiesel.

Nelson rocked the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre Thursday night, and then got on the road again and rolled out of town heading to Vancouver yesterday with 2,000 litres of pure biodiesel on board from Columbia Fuels.

"We knocked on his door and he showed up on ours," said Kees Schaddelee, Columbia's biofuels coordinator. "We knew Willie was a big biodiesel advocate and knew he was coming to town so we got in contact with his people a month ago, made the arrangements and lined it up."

While Columbia is used to providing a five-per-cent biodiesel blend for cardlock customers and a 20-per-cent blend for fleet customers, Schaddelee said.

Nelson wanted his fuel uncut.

"Willie wanted pure, B-100, that's pure biodiesel as there's no diesel in it at all," he said. "Most engines can run on it just fine, especially in the summer months, and that's what he runs on."

So Columbia made it happen, driving a tanker to Nelson's hotel to fill the buses.

The fuel, which reduces emissions, was also easy on the pocketbook.

"It's actually a lot cheaper because there's no road taxes on the biodiesel portion of any blend," said Schaddelee. "Typically with B-20 (a 20 per cent biodiesel blend) you're only getting an exemption on 20 per cent of the product, 100 per cent biodiesel makes it over 10 cents cheaper per litre."

Nelson paid 78 cents per litre, meaning he dropped $1,560 to top up the tanks of his four buses.

But he also kicked in tickets to the show and backstage passes for four Columbia staff members.

According to the website www.biowillieusa.com, Nelson came across biodiesel in 2004 when his wife Annie bought a car that could run on bio-diesel, a clean burning, renewable fuel made from vegetable oils or animal fats.

Shortly after noticing the benefits of the fuel, Nelson started the Willie Nelson Biodiesel Co., which produces and distributes BioWillie biodiesel. The fuel is available at 13 locations in the U.S. in Texas, California, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia and Tennessee.

Nelson, a long-time advocate for the American farmer and founder of the Farm Aid concert series, has touted biofuels as a means of eliminating the U.S.'s dependence on foreign oil and a way to put the family farmer back to work growing crops like soybeans that can be used to make the fuel.

Andrew A. Duffy, Times Colonist

© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2007