Aspiring 'Biotown' gets visit from CSNY

09/03/2006 5:21 PM, AP


Tour buses carrying members of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young stopped in a northern Indiana town to support turning it into "Biotown USA."

The rock group, whose touring vehicles have used alternative fuels for six years, made a detour Saturday on their Freedom of Speech '06 tour to visit the town.

The buses pulled into a new gasoline station in Reynolds that sells alternative fuels and filled up on B-20 — a mixture of 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent diesel fuel. Footage was shot during the stop for a VH1 documentary.

"This is a beginning, a start," Graham Nash said. "Someone has to lead us out of this dark hole of dependence on foreign oil."

Bandmate David Crosby agreed.

"I think it's much better to produce our fuel here and give our money to American farmers then it is to send it to Saudi Arabia where they don't even like us," Crosby said.

State officials hope to break ground in November on a $10 million "technology suite," a privately funded center that will house equipment needed to turn everything from municipal trash to farm waste, hog manure and even town sewage into energy.