Darryl Brooks of Fayetteville has learned Kermit the Frog is right — it's not easy being green.

Filling the tank of his VW Jetta with biodiesel — a blend of diesel fuel and vegetable oil — requires a 45-minute drive to Atlanta. So, while he is there, Brooks fills six or seven 5-gallon containers to haul home in his trunk.

For Brooks and others who want to burn something other than gasoline, only a handful of places exist across metro Atlanta where you can fill up with alternative fuels such as biodiesel, compressed natural gas or E85, a gasoline-ethanol blend.

Just four locations exist between Atlanta and Cartersville, roughly an hour northwest, where you can buy biodiesel. Just three spots have an E85 pump, and there is only one place in this area code where drivers can buy compressed natural gas.

Alan Adler said it's the classic chicken or egg conundrum — there aren't many alternative fuel stations because there aren't many alternative fuel cars and trucks, and people aren't buying alternative fuel vehicles because the fuel is hard to find.

"We're trying to address both issues," said Adler, biofuels communications manager with General Motors.

GM makes 11 models, mostly large SUVs and pickup trucks, that run on either gasoline or E85 — a blend of 85 percent ethanol made from corn and 15 percent gasoline. The automotive giant is also "working as aggressively as we can be bringing online E85 stations and making the fuel available," Adler said.

GM doesn't build or finance the E85 stations, Adler said, adding, "We try to do the matchmaking."

Meanwhile, a little inconvenience is the price of principle, biodiesel users said.

"It's the right thing to do," said Padrick Handley, who burns biodiesel in his Dodge Ram pickup truck.

It's up to each driver to take steps to reduce the nation's dependence of imported oil, said Powell Smith, who lives in Peachtree City and buys his biodiesel in Marietta, using his lunch break from his job in the Galleria area of Cobb County.

"Our country has become addicted to foreign oil," Smith lamented.

The engine seems to run smoother when burning biodiesel, users said. And there is another benefit to burning vegetable oil over petroleum diesel, Brooks said.

"The exhaust smells better."