Yep, gas prices are high -- and Americans are driving less than ever. But for those who have to drive due to lack of more eco-friendly options, car ownership's gotten more stressful than ever -- even if you're driving a greasemobile! Read on and get motivated to cut your reliance on the automobile:

Thieves are drilling into fuel tanks. Not only are drivers paying $4+ a gallon, now some are being forced to pay for repairs, thanks to thieves who are puncturing and drilling into tanks. "The soaring price of crude oil has turned gasoline tanks into a cache of valuable booty," reports the Associated Press. Easy targets are SUVs, due to their theft-friendly height, especially the ones with plastic tanks that are easy to drill into safely. That's one more reason to ditch the SUV --

Thieves are stealing restaurant grease to use as fuel. According to the New York Times, the value of processed fryer oil "has increased in recent months to historic highs, driven by the even higher prices of gas and ethanol, making it an ever more popular form of biodiesel to fuel cars and trucks." Restaurants are now considering surveillance cameras to watch over their grease barrels to ward of a motley bunch of grease-stealers, who include "do-it-yourself environmentalists worried about their carbon footprints, warring waste management firms trying to beat each other on the sly, and petty thieves who are profiting from the oil’s rising value on the black market."

A company's turning algae into fuel. Since all existing fuels are getting pricy, innovative companies are looking to create new ways to fill up fuel tanks. The L.A. Times reports that a San Diego company called Sapphire Energy's figured out how to turn algae into greenish oil. The cleaner fuel could be processed in existing refineries and used in regular cars, according to the company. The one downside: The first of these algae fuels isn't expected to be available for another 3 years.

Photo by Gregg Moscoe