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By MARY THERESE BIEBEL marytb@leader.net
Friday, March 14, 2003 Page: 5
In front of Debbi Shoval’s house, a heavily traveled highway is plagued by
frequent traffic jams. “It’s like Wyoming Avenue,” she says, “only a lot
busier.”
Behind the place, there’s a relatively peaceful rails-to-trails path, where
the environmental activist often breezes along via bicycle while motorists
idle and fume.
If more commuters joined her on that bike path – at least figuratively –
Shoval says the country would be stronger, the air would be cleaner and there
would be fewer reasons to go to war.
But knowing how reluctant most Americans are to drive fewer miles, Shoval
and four friends from the Liberty Cabbage Theatre Revival suggest other
alternatives in “Oiligarchy,” an hour-long play they wrote and will present
7 p.m. Wednesday at the Tudor Book Shop & Cafe in Kingston.
One of the best ways to decrease the United States’ dependence on foreign
oil, the play suggests, is to use cars that can run on biodiesel fuel –
including the millions of gallons of used cooking oil that restaurants
typically discard.
“If we wanted to do it right, (biodiesel fuel) would be locally
produced,” Shoval said, ticking off the benefits of waste reduction, a boost
to the economy and a chance for area students to have a hands-on chemistry
project.
The idea has made inroads in Western Massachusetts, where Wyoming Valley
native Shoval lives, divides chores with seven housemates and drives a vehicle
powered by biodiesel fuel.
“Around here there are two different options,” she said. “A local man,
an independent producer, makes it himself, and there’s a cooperative with
pumps where you can drive up and get it.”
The average price is $2 a gallon, said Shoval, who believes that, in time,
the price will come down.
Fellow activist Steve Franco of Duryea agrees with that assessment. By
summer, he’s optimistic about making biodiesel fuel available in Northeastern
Pennsylvania for about $1 a gallon.
As the price of petroleum rises, he predicted, biodiesel fuel will become
more and more attractive.
The fuel powers only diesel engines, not the gas-burning varieties found in
most passenger cars, but Franco hopes that won’t hold consumers back. “I’m
going to sell my car and get a diesel vehicle,” he said. “Diesel is more
fuel efficient to begin with.”
Anyone interested in more information about biodiesel options may contact
Franco at 237-0124 or stevef@practicalenvironmentalism.org.
When Americans fill their tanks with fuel from Nigeria or Colombia, Shoval
said, they probably don’t think about indigenous farmers and fishermen whose
land or water is fouled by the extraction.
“They’re living in malnutrition and poverty,” she said. “We’re literally
killing people.”
The play opens with a ritual scene in which the cast shows “all the things
we had to sacrifice for the oil industry,” actor Rachel Young said. “We’ve
had to sacrifice clean air, community, peace, clean soil, biodiversity.”
But while the messages of “Oiligarchy” are serious, the artists want to
deliver that message in a colorful, imaginative way.
“We do an abstract, interpretive dance about the origins of petroleum,”
said Young, who has been practicing diligently with Shoval, Elisabeth Weaver,
Charlotte Capogna and Erika Arthur. “The characters are plankton and algae,
water, shale and oil.
“Oil’s costume, ironically, is made out of a really shiny-petroleum based
product, very sleek and crinkly and slimy-looking. I happen to be water in
that scene. I wear a long flowing costume of different colors of blue and
green.”
And the plankton and algae costume?
“That one’s not complete yet,” Young said.
IF YOU GO
WHAT: “Oiligarchy”
WHO: Liberty Cabbage Theatre Revival
WHEN: 7 p.m. Wednesday
WHERE: Tudor Book Shop, 651 Wyoming Ave., Kingston
INFO: 288-9697
IMAGE COURTESY OF LIBERTY CABBAGE THEATRE REVIVAL
Members of the Liberty Cabbage Theatre Revival rehearse `Oiligarchy,’ a
play they wrote to promote the benefits of alternative fuel.