The Fries Have It

Boston diner gets its heat from used veggie oil

Restaurant owner Don Levy geared up for this year's chilly Boston winter by getting rid of his furnace. Wait, it's not as batty as it sounds: Levy replaced his old heating system with a boiler that runs on 100 percent vegetable oil -- a readily available resource, so long as Bostonians keep eating fries. Not only is Levy avoiding high natural-gas heating prices, he also doesn't have to pay sanitation workers to haul away his leftover oil. "I'm saving money, and I'm saving the planet, too," says Levy, who is confident that he'll recoup his investment within five years. To those that argue that alternative-energy systems aren't economical, we say: Booyah!