MTSU is in the spotlight again, this time because a professor drove from Georgia to California using a little over 2-gallons of gas. Dr. Cliff Ricketts is worried about a national crisis and wants us to be prepared . . .

Dr. Ricketts is no stranger to alternative fuels. He has been doing alternative fuel research at MTSU for 34-years. A few decades ago he designed several successful solar powered cars that traveled long distances. Rickett's hydrogen powered vehicle has held  the land speed record for that type of fuel for the past 15-years ago. In fact, the Agribusiness and Agriscience professor commented . . .

Ricketts noted his concern for U.S. oil being exported to Asia instead of being used here. He said not only do we have ample supplies of oil in Alaska, they are drilling for oil now in Mitchell, South Dakota. He described it as a "boom town that built about 500 new homes last year and sold 400 of them."

Dr. Ricketts has powered vehicles using ethanol from corn, methane from cow manure, soybean oil, hydrogen from water, and has a solar-electric truck, plus runs a campus shuttle bus on oil from french fry units.