Fuel Crisis? What Fuel Crisis? Part 1
What happens when you realise a quarter acre can run your truck, your generator, your tractor, and your car without a single modification, and has been doing so in plain sight for centuries?
This is the beginning of a three-part investigation into a story that connects agriculture, energy, industry, and power. Each part builds on the last, moving from the plant itself to the systems that shaped its rise, its removal, and its return.
The Amish demonstrate, in very practical terms, that hemp can power virtually every machine in daily use. A diesel truck, a petrol car, a backup generator, a tractor, even a lawnmower. In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, this crop is being cultivated openly and within the law, on land that has been worked by the same communities for centuries.
What makes this plant remarkable is its dual output. It yields one fuel suitable for diesel engines and another for petrol engines. No retrofitting required. No specialised components. No trips to the mechanic. In 2010, research conducted by the University of Connecticut reduced this entire conversation to a single figure the oil sector have made their primary aim to keep out of public view: 97%.
Once that figure is understood, the reasoning behind the plant’s prohibition in 1937 becomes difficult to ignore. But that point sits further ahead in this essay. First, there’s a need to examine a 1937 policy that effectively removed hemp from American society, and for decades. It involves four widely recognised figures, and the disappearance of roughly 2000 fuel stations across the Midwest in the very year the legislation came into force.
You don’t need to be a landowner, a farmer, or even someone with experience growing anything. What the Amish have demonstrated over centuries with this crop scales down to something almost disarmingly simple. A quarter acre of land, a basic shed, and a pickup truck. That’s it.
Drive through East Hempfield Township, just outside Lancaster, and you’ll come across the name Hempfield. It reads like any other inherited place name in Pennsylvania, the kind travellers pass without a second thought, detached from whatever it once signified.
But step onto a working farm in that region and ask any Amish farmer to walk you through the process of fuel production, and the response is immediate. A glass jar is filled with a liquid that looks no different from cooking oil and is poured directly into a small diesel tractor. You’ll notice that the engine starts immedaitely. No delay, no misfire, no smoke. You can stand there expecting something to go wrong but it won’t. Ask where the fuel comes from, and the answer will be direct: harvested naturally.
That source is hemp. Industrial hemp. Cannabis sativa to be precise. The distinction matters, because the overlap with marijuana has long been blurred. Industrial hemp contains less than 0.3% THC, the compound linked to psychoactive effects. There’s no comparable outcome from its use, to the point where you could smoke an entire bale of industrial hemp and feel nothing.
The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, often referred to as the 2018 Farm Bill, was signed into law on December 20, 2018. It authorised the cultivation, processing, transport, and sale of industrial hemp across the United States at a federal level. In legal terms, it now sits alongside crops such as corn, soybeans, and wheat.
But eighty years earlier, hemp was classified in the same category as controlled narcotics. That classification wasn’t driven by concerns over intoxication or people getting high. It had everything to do with fuel, money, and greed. Fuel markets, financial interests, and the concentration of both in the hands of a small number of powerful individuals. To understand why, it’s necessary to start with the capabilities of the plant itself.
Hemp seeds contain approximately 30%-35% oil by weight. That oil can be extracted using a basic cold-press method, similar to the process used for producing olive or sunflower oil. Once extracted, the oil can be converted into biodiesel through a chemical reaction known as transesterification.
The process involves combining the oil with methanol and a small quantity of lye, which acts as a catalyst. A reaction occurs, separating the mixture into two distinct layers. The upper layer becomes crude biodiesel. The lower layer is glycerin, a by-product commonly used in soap production, industrial cleaning and food processing. After washing the biodiesel with water and allowing it to dry, it can be used in any diesel engine, without modification or specialised components. Yes you read that right. Any diesel engine.
The Diesel Engine
Did you know that the original diesel engine wasn’t designed to run on lead-based petroleum? In the 1890s, Rudolf Diesel developed the design in Germany and filed a patent on February 28, 1892. His accompanying paper, Theory and Construction of a Rational Heat Engine to Replace the Steam Engine, outlined what he described as a compression ignition engine. The fuel he had in mind was derived from plant oils. In 1900, he presented this engine at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, otherwise known as the World Exposition.
At the request of the French government, the engine was operated using peanut oil sourced from their African territories. It ran with such minimal noise and consistent performance that many attendees at the Expo struggled to hear it running.
Diesel stated that vegetable oils could serve as a viable fuel source and could play a role in supporting agricultural development. His concept was direct. Farmers could produce their own fuel from their own land. He referred to his invention as the “oil engine”.
And then he died under suspicious circumstances (read more about this recurring phenomenon in my essay Free Energy Breakthroughs Buried, and Brilliant Minds Silenced).
On September 29, 1913, Rudolf Diesel boarded the SS Dresden in Antwerp, Belgium, en route to London. He was scheduled to meet officials of the British Royal Navy regarding the use of his engines in submarines. That evening, he had dinner onboard and later retired to his cabin around 10pm, requesting to be woken at 6:15 the next morning. When a steward came to wake him, the cabin was empty. The bed had not been used. His nightclothes were set out. His watch was positioned for visibility from the bed. His hat and coat were later found folded beneath the railing of the ship’s stern.
Ten days later, a Dutch fishing vessel recovered a body in the North Sea. The condition of the remains prevented visual identification at the time, but personal belongings retrieved from the pockets of the body were later recognised by his son as those of his father.
In the days that followed, the press split into two lines of reporting. Some framed it as suicide. Others pointed to a more deliberate act, suggesting the inventor had been removed to prevent the transfer of his patents to the British government, with suspicion directed toward interests tied to the oil industry.
His wife later examined a bag he had handed to her before departure. It contained 200,000 German marks in cash, along with documents indicating that their bank accounts were nearly depleted. In his diary, the date September 29 was marked with a cross. This is not conspiracy. This is historical fact.
Whilst the full account of what happened aboard that ship remains uncertain based on available evidence, the timing, however, draws warranted attention. The individual behind one of the most efficient engines ever created had publicly argued that plant-based oils could rival petroleum. He was also on his way to discuss supplying that technology to the British Navy. Then he disappeared at sea. And after his death, manufacturers stopped promoting plant oils as a primary fuel source. There was no broad consultation with farmers. As a result petroleum interests moved at lighning speed, modifying existing fuel systems and establishing crude oil-based diesel as the standard. Within a decade, diesel engines worldwide were operating on petroleum.
An engine originally intended to give farmers independence instead tied them to a single fuel source controlled by an oil company (more on Standard Oil later in this investigation). The shift went largely unquestioned, in part because the person most closely associated with that original vision was no longer alive to challenge it.
And that raises the next question. What about petrol engines? The car, the lawnmower, the chainsaw. This is where the second output from the plant becomes relevant, and where it intersects with what Henry Ford was pointing toward decades ago. After the seeds are harvested for oil, the remaining plant matter - dense, woody, fibrous stalks - is still usable. That material contains high levels of cellulose.
Through a process known as cellulolysis, the cellulose is broken down into simple sugars. Those sugars are then fermented, producing ethanol. This is the same type of alcohol already blended into petrol at fuel stations worldwide. In every fuel station around the world, standard petrol can contain up to 10% ethanol, a blend referred to as E10.
And that distinction simply lies in the source. Most ethanol used at the pump today is derived from corn. Hemp, by contrast, yields both biodiesel from its seeds and ethanol from its stalks. A single crop producing two fuels for two different engine types, with minimal residual waste. And Henry Ford recognised this potential early.
When the Model T was introduced in 1908, Henry Ford built it to operate on petrol, ethanol, or any blend of the two. In a 1925 interview with the New York Times, he spoke directly about where he believed fuel was heading. He predicted a “century of prosperity,” fueled by rapid industrial growth and agricultural advancement. He believed Americans would soon grow their own alcohol-based fuel and that electric power would heat homes. Ford also championed high wages and mass production as pillars of economic progress.
He specifically pointed to organic sources like crops and waste plant material, byproducts most people overlooked. He argued that fermentable matter held usable energy, and that even a single acre of potatoes could yield enough alcohol to sustain the machinery needed to work the land for generations.
Parts 2 and 3 continue this investigation in full detail, including the historical record, the suppressed commercial rollout of plant-based fuel, and what this means in practical terms today. These are available exclusively to paid subscribers. If you want access to the full picture, this is where it continues.
Spot on! I’ve also read that prohibition was sponsored by big oil in order to prevent farmers from making their own ethanol.
https://youtu.be/zSff0pwc1Xc?si=Uo2M0-KC7K_Zr9pX
Fletcher Prouty