Willie Nelson sings the praises of homegrown fuel.

More than a century ago, Rudolf Diesel’s new engines made their debut at the 1900 World’s Fair – powered by peanut oil, the original biodiesel. Back then, diesel engines – fueled solely on vegetable oils – got better fuel mileage than the traditional combustion engines and soon became the norm.

When oil companies took over the market in the 1920s with their cheap, low-grade petroleum diesel, engine manufacturers modified the engines to run on the newfangled fuel. A century later, as environmental concerns, dwindling sources of fossil fuels and conflicts in the Middle East contribute to spiraling costs at the fuel pump, it’s back to the future, where an old idea becomes a hot new trend.

Interest in biodiesel has exploded as its advantages become known, its distribution expands and celebrities jump on the bandwagon. Even President Bush declared biodiesel “one of our nation’s most promising alternative fuel sources” and admonished Americans who are “addicted to oil” to consider alternative fuel sources.

“I didn’t know I was addicted to oil, until the president told me so,” said Willie Nelson, a sheepish grin lighting the creased, time-worn face of the legendary country-western singer and songwriter. “Heck, I guess it’s just something else I gotta get off of,” he told the audience at the April 9 grand opening of the Earth Biofuels biodiesel production plant in Durant, Okla.

Nelson and actor Morgan Freeman toured the facility that will eventually employ 100 people and produce 10 million gallons per year of biodiesel from soybean and canola oil. “The product will then be blended with petroleum to provide a renewable source of energy that will help with emissions,” says Tommy Johnson, CEO of Earth Biofuels.