Not a Johnny Depp kind of pirate

The biofuels thing is causing some problems in Houston.  Used-grease pirates!

Launching lightning raids under cover of darkness, slippery siphon-and-run grease pirates are taking the sizzle out of Houston’s lucrative used cooking oil business — a once ho-hum trade that gained cachet as the restaurant waste became a prime ingredient in environmentally friendly biodiesel.

Richard McClere, owner of a small independent Houston grease-collecting business, estimated up to a third of the used oil he buys from restaurants is stolen before he can pick it up.

Shawn Griffin, Texas manager for the national Griffin Industries waste removal company, said record prices for grease have fueled record thefts — especially in Houston, the most grease pirate-plagued city in the state: “It’s a huge problem, the worst I’ve ever seen.”

Weird.