Garden & Gun has an article on Buffett’s “grease experiment.” After running his Green Tomato surf van on used cooking oil for a couple of years, Jimmy came up with the idea to supply oil to commercial fishing boats:

Jimmy Buffett has a vision for his golden years. “My dream,” explains the musician, “is to get a big ole tanker truck, with huge holding capacity, and drive it up and down the Eastern seaboard collecting used cooking oil.” This from a man who’s built a mini-empire of concert tours, best sellers, and restaurants, and who could probably rest on his laurels somewhere besides the cab of a semi. “I want to collect all that used grease and distribute it to commercial fishermen along the coast to use as fuel for their boats.”

Buffett’s food-centric epiphany came from a green tomato. Actually, the Green Tomato, his giant green surf van converted to run on used cooking oil, a process that is actually relatively simple compared with using biodiesel. The van is hard to miss, and driving around the United States in search of swells, Buffett found himself acting like an ambassador for the grease engine movement. “I felt like a teacher because I was giving lectures everywhere I went about the benefits of burning grease,” he says.

Along with the usual suspects—surf bums and eco-hippies—commercial fishermen were anxious to hear his pitch. “These guys are always being screwed by the high cost of diesel,” Buffett says. And among fishermen, no one is more familiar with being screwed by high fuel costs and measly returns than the American shrimper. While shrimp prices have declined due to the flood of farmed shrimp onto the market, most of it imported from Asia, the same cannot be said for fuel.

Continue reading this story here.

Briggs & Stratton has donated 240 generators to provide power to areas of Haiti that were devastated be the January earthquake, but the units have been tied up in customs. After a company Rep met Buffett, he offered to help:

Laura Timm, director of corporate communications for Wauwatosa-based Briggs, recently spent four days in Haiti checking on the status of the generators and touring the ravaged nation. She met Buffett, whose hit songs include Margaritaville and Cheeseburger in Paradise, in the lobby of her hotel in the capital city of Port-au- Prince and told him of the reason for her trip. The following morning, Timm received a phone cal saying that Buffett wanted to speak with her again. He told her he was on his way to the U.S. Embassy in Haiti for a meeting and said he would mention Briggs & Stratton’s plight.

Briggs & Stratton?s donation, valued at $250,000 was coordinated by Vero Beach, Fla.-based Haiti Partners, which will distribute 190 generators to schools, churches and clinics. The foundation wil share its 50 generators with Haiti?s Civil Protection Department.

You’ll be a cheeseburger in paradise when you meet the one and only, Jimmy Buffett, at one of his US concerts in 2010!

Two tickets, as well as backstage passes to one of Buffett’s continental US shows this year, are currently being auctioned on charitybuzz. Fans will get to meet the Master of Margaritaville backstage.

Proceeds will benefit the Ross School of East Hampton, NY, in their mission to raise funds for the School’s programs and for the Steven J. Ross Scholarship Fund, which has been in place since the School’s
inception in 1991.

The auction will close on June 18th. To place a bid, visit:
http://www.charitybuzz.com/catalog_items/212305.

The bidding is currently at $950.

Charitybuzz auctions VIP experiences and luxury goods on its web site to raise millions for nonprofits around the globe.

A native of the Gulf Coast region, Jimmy Buffett is helping a Vero Beach, Florida boat builder in the oil spill relief effort: “Vero Beach boatbuilder, Jimmy Buffett team up to help recover oiled wildlife in Gulf”

The images of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico are serving as a call to action for men and women who have built their lives on the water like Vero Beach boatbuilders Mark Castlow and Jimbo Meador, and Meador’s longtime friend, musician Jimmy Buffett.

Days after people began to learn about the magnitude of the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe, Castlow e-mailed Meador and Buffett who were in the Bahamas fishing for bonefish. Castlow’s message was simple: “We have to do something.”

Early next week, Dragonfly Boatworks, a small custom boatbuilding company, expects to ship a vessel designed specifically to aid in the recovery of oil-covered wildlife along the marshes of the Gulf Coast.

Named “S.W.A.T.” for Shallow Water Attention Terminal, the Dragonfly crew took the 17-foot skiff from Castlow’s original sketches to the finished product in just 28 days.

The boat is one of four Dragonfly will build and send to university researchers in the Gulf, Meador said.

“We’re trying to get a boat out there as quickly as possible,” said Meador, a lifelong waterman born and raised on Alabama’s Gulf coast. “We’re building it for them to use on oiled birds and wildlife, but we hope they don’t need it.”

The first SWAT is headed to the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory operated by the University of Southern Mississippi. The scientists there were chosen to receive the first one in part because it is Buffett’s alma mater.

The singer, songwriter, restaurateur and author is underwriting the construction costs of the four boats estimated at about $35,000 apiece. Dragonfly Boatworks also is donating much of the expense, and the company is in the process of trying to partner with an outboard engine manufacturer to help with the cause.

Taking feedback and suggestions from Buffett as well as from scientists involved in the recovery effort, Castlow and Meador incorporated many unique features to help on the water. The boat is expected to have a draft of 8 to 12 inches when loaded. A worktable sits in the middle of the deck and is coated with a sanitary gel coat and coarse surface to help keep oil-covered birds from slipping on the surface and adding to their stress.

“This whole disaster really got our ire up,” Castlow said of Buffett, Meador and himself. “We’ve made our livings from the ocean our whole lives. We’re just trying to get a tool into the hands of the people who have dedicated their lives to working with marine life.”

WPTV also has an article on Buffett and Dragonfly.

Jimmy Buffett’s sister Lucy has written an op-ed for Alabama’s Press-Register about the oil spill and tourism along the Gulf coast: ‘The coast is open for business”

The Gulf Coast is where the everyday person can play. We love where we live and are proud of it.

We get amused sharing it and seeing the surprise on folks’ faces when they realize that a little piece of unlikely paradise exists smack at the bottom of this magnificent country of ours.

So imagine our dismay, anger, grief and absolute heartbreak over the ongoing catastrophe of crude oil continuously and arrogantly flowing into our beautiful Gulf of Mexico.

This is indeed a major challenge for us physically, emotionally, environmentally and economically.

Personally, I prefer to remain positive about the oil spill’s impact, because I know mountains can be moved with a positive attitude. Why wouldn’t that work with a runaway well?

I do, however, live in a very real world, and I know that our corner of this world stands to be affected by the oil spill.

As we are called to action, we will respond with the dauntless spirit of coastal people, especially those born in the hurricane corridor. We will weather this storm as we have weathered the other monsters that have roared upon our shores in the past: by working hard, side by side, with dedication, compassion and a sense of community, and earning some fun in the process.

I am hoping that there will be little damage or interruption of beach recreation. Perhaps the oil spill will be just an inconvenience, much like too many jellyfish in the water or the occasional riptides.

If not, we are going to need everyone’s love, support and help. So I have a very special invitation for people to join us here in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach and on Dauphin Island and Mobile Bay.

Don’t cancel your plans or reservations. This could be one of the most memorable vacations you will ever have.

Most of you travel with children. What a great opportunity to teach our kids so many valuable life lessons — from the beauty of volunteering to the importance of helping your neighbor during a crisis, learning about the fragile ecosystem that created the remarkable Gulf of Mexico, and meeting new friends from all over the country with the same purpose of keeping our beautiful shores safe for our children and wildlife.

Read the entire letter here.

Lucy Buffett own’s Lulu’s at Homeport Marina restaurant in Gulf Shores. Visit their website.