He's been pussy whipped by Sandra Bullock! ;o) Just kidding folks... Not only that, he's also building an all li-ion drag racer on his href="http://www.milwaukeetool.com/us/en/news.nsf/vwPressReleases/05B7EA8847B096A48625710A006F210D?Open">Monster
Garage TV show.

Cue vegan speech about the horrors of meat in 3, 2, 1...

This Jesse looks like a good role-model for oil-addicted, car-obsessed testosterone-high American men who care more about 'manly' things than about the environment. Like Nixon to the Republicans when he went to China.

he's just an opportunist. but of course - people could do worse things with their money. to me that jesse guy looks more than oil-addicted btw.

Are there veggie-burgers on the menu? The by-products of meat production cause huge pollution problems.

Cue in too the questions/comments on locally grown food to boot. In 3...2...1...

I wonder how many places with the potential to buy local + non-organic food sacrifice that choice for the non-local + organic label? Not saying this place does that, or even could get all their ingrediants from local sources, just wondering.

As for the horror of meat making. Does this place serve veggie or vegan burger options?

Great start eco start though. Wish more places were like that including the few dedicated vegetarian/vegan restaurants out n about Canada and the US.

Yet more self-righteousness. Everyone comes to the greener side on their own path. Jesse has millions of fans (I'm one of them) who simply love engineering and solving problems. In the end, it's folks like this that will ultimately help to save us from ourselves, via television and the newest speed machine, powered by electricity or biodiesel of course.

Please stop the unintelligent discourse on machismo (Houston and others); lots of folks care about more than birkenstocks and raw diets, and those are the ones needing conversion. This is a positive step.

The hypocrisy here is so thick you can cut it with a knife. You lot making judgements based on how someone LOOKS???? He does good, really good, and all you can do is find something wrong with it??? You ever hear people say "Eco-commie-hippy" when shown the picture of someone wearing hemp cloths, sandals, and long hair? Shame on you. This planet is indeed doomed.

what i'm saying is that i can't trust a guy who builds monsterous gasguzzlers for a living and then sells "eco-burgers" in his backyard. the good thing is tho, that his followers get a glance of what else is around.

"Monsterous gas guzzler", eh? He builds motorcycles. Which last time I checked aren't exactly gas guzzlers at 60 mpg +/- It's his hotrods he likes to drive you should be concerned about :o Yah, at least he's doing something. Nothing's ever good enough.

He builds what, 10 or 20 a year??? They get driven how often? Maybe to one or two events, then sit in the garage as a showpiece??? By that logic you must certainly not trust anyone who works for Toyota, Prius notwithstanding. Hell, you must also not trust basically anyone around you who owns/drives any vehicle. I'm assuming you don't own/drive a vehicle since it would be amusingly preposterous based on your position. Again you illustrate why the planet is doomed. :(

Well tochichi couldn't you look at this as some sort of carbon credit for his other activities? to me doing something is better than doing nothing. i think he is on a winner with this new place and the more celebs that open places like this the better off the world will be.

I don't see anything wrong with building bikes or popularizing solar power. Or eating meat, for that matter.

To maul a classic quote nearly beyond recognition, his machismo neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

I aqree that motorcycles are solid alternatives to cars, especially when its necessary to travel on freeways where bikes/mopeds/scooters are dangerous. However, it isn't fair to say that James' bikes are getting 60+ mpg... they're probably in the low 30s, depending on the model. Smaller bikes can hit 60 (and some Euro bikes are even better) but "hogs" like his are significantly less efficient. Still, they're going to be a lot better than any SUV, and they cause very little damage to the road.

what's the place called? i wanna know what it's called.

ek

I'm not sure where your comment on 'machismo' comes from. I have a feeling that you think my comment on Jesse was an attempt at sarcasm and it was not. Who better to convince that subset (a very large subset) of Americans who love consuming gasoline to turn to the green side than someone they look up to? I have a feeling you misunderstood my original comment.

""opening an organic, solar powered hamburger joint named for a pet pit bull would fit quite nicely. The newly opened Cisco Burger is located just east of James' West Coast Choppers complex""

i think it's called Cisco Burgers or something...

(((BTW so when someone say's "Cue in the ________ argument 3.... 2.... 1... " does it automatically stop that argument from happening? is that a new phenom?))

"Powered" by solar panels on the roof?
Ha. Ha.

A place like this sucks power like crazy. A/C, lighting, cooking. The solar might light a few light bulbs. Sure they do a very small bit. But 'Powered'? No way. This kind of phoney enviromentalism seems to work well with the press, though.

This is another car-based place to eat. Drive your car down your sidewalk less streets to the strip mall so you can get the walking down and the pollution up.

Some of you people on posting on here just look for reasons to hate people.

Like "i can't trust a guy who builds monsterous gasguzzlers for a living".

and "This Jesse looks like a good role-model for oil-addicted, car-obsessed testosterone-high American men who care more about 'manly' things than about the environment. Like Nixon to the Republicans when he went to China."

What's that about? You bash a guy's charactor because he builds motocycles or has that oh so evil testosterone? Is there something wrong with men who aren't neutered or something? The guy tries to make a difference and you call him and opportunist? Come on, be a little more open minded here!

Yikes - I almost for a minute thought I was reading Egotastic or some other celebrity-bashing website.

Would these responses have been so vitriolic if Cisco Burger was developed by Joe Smith in Carbondale, IL??

BTW, knobsturner, the restaurant is next to a greenbelt park in development, so perhaps folks will actually walk to get a burger.

Hey "Knob", you got any facts? Know how many kilowatt hours his array generates? Know how much power his place uses? Know anything at all other than what goes on in your imagination? I'll hazard a guess that the answer is a resounding "NO".
You want to make a point? Call the place up. Ask them those questions. Post what you find. I'm actually interested, though I think any attempt is admirable and badly needed. I am sure they do not generate 100% of the electricity they need. In fact, 99%+ of all home PV installations generate less than 50% of the home's needs (you can find that with a simple Google search). Does this make those people bad too? So you blame him for the lack of public transportation and pedestrian friendly systems inherent to almost all US cities??? Ugh, my cynicism about the human races only grows when people like this chime in.

Don't be a hater:

I tried to make a positive, supportive remark about Jesse, and you bash me. If you don't understand the political analogy, there is no reason to call me close-minded because of it.

Chingy

I am not sure if your first comment was directed at me or not. If it was, then I have to inform you that you took the word 'looks' in my post too literally. In my post it meant 'seems'. If you had understood my Nixon comment, you would have realized that. If your comment was directed at me, then this world is indeed doomed like you said.

ok a positive spin on the energy issues, and in case Jesse and Sandra are reading this (and not put off by the cynics). unless the solar array is HUGE its unlikely that all ther jucie will come from the sun. But there are ways to get that in this type of fast food environmnent. 1) they will have btween 10-20 gallons of veggie oil to deal with every day... y'all knwo the drill, a nice china diesel or even one of those fancypants SVO generators (yes yes yes they cost $6K instead of $3 but its all in one). That way they can get 6-10KwH all day from their waste, not have to pay each week to dispose of it. and get more bang for buck.

and now seriously kids, you think theyre going to have a place like this and NOT have veggie burger options?? please.

I think this is AWESOME! and it's high time that celebrioties do more than take thei rhomes off the grid, but invest in risky companies where the payoffs are both goo d for them and the rest of us! If we can get even 10-% of the Stars budges invested in green innovations we would be laughing all the way to the biosphere!

Umn...Houston...We got a problem? I don't know what you're talking about and didn't know you existed until just now. My very first comment was a general "WTF" to all the bashers that came out of the woodwork on this one. Yep, the hypocrits seem to outnumber the pragmatic Treehuggers on this site.

Chingy

My apologies.

well folks - here's an interesting take on the discussion:
"Much of the restaurant's power comes from solar panels on the roof. It's eco, but not cloyingly so. GREEN VIEWS: Not cloying enough to please all the readers of the popular Web magazine Treehugger, many of whom aspire to never being happy about anything."

read the article at:
http://www.presstelegram.com/search/ci_3786531

these arguments seem to be personal and unrealistic idealism at their most hypocritical.

he's letting his freak flag fly and he's making a positive effort - right effort in the world, my friends, does not look the same for everyone.

ask yourself where your veggie burgers come from...you might be shocked to discover what Kraft (Oscar Meyer) and ConAgra (snap into a slim jim) are promoting in the world.

bon appetit!

I think this is really cool. Why not do something good for the environment? I like the idea, especially from people in the public eye. You are never going to please everyone but what they are doing is something; its a step in the right direction. I don't see many fast food restaurants taking this kind of initiative.

Yeah that's all swell and all BUT how much does it cost?!?!?!

I live in LBC. I'll let you know.

Ever wonder why so many people hate tree huggers? Read what you write! Someone does their part for the environment and you trash him because of his looks, or that his solar power may not supply 100% of his energy needs or that some of his cars use gas (god forbid). At least he is doing something, and those of us out there that don't wear sandles and tie dyed t-shirts are seeing that we can do something without having to be a hippie.
Last time I checked your little hybrid cars are not 100% fuel free and still use gas, yet you praise them for doing their part, but Jesse dosn't provide 100% of his power from solar cells and you trash him. What a disgusting display of a double standard.
I was impressed with what Jesse is doing, but some of the comments I read today make me think it aint worth the effort!

Hey chopperguy, you should go read the posts under the hybrid survey today!! We are equal-opportunity bashers here at TH - we don't cut anyone slack, be they groovy burger joint owners or hybrid cars.

Oi! This is why Utopias always fail. People cant agree and always have to argue, accuse and expect more. Lord help us all.

Utopia??? Drink some more Kool-Aid.