Energy is in a crisis right now. Oil prices have been shooting off the charts for months now. Oil went over $58 a barrel earlier this month. It’s starting to drop but gasoline is still more then $2.20 a gallon at the pump.
President Bush recently unveiled plans for a comprehensive energy policy and yesterday proposed several measures to improve our country with regards to energy. He mentioned more refineries, cleaner burning coal and new nuclear power plants. He forgot to mention one plentiful, cheap source of energy that is everywhere, methane.
Methane is generate by many living creatures naturally as part of their digestive process. Methane is generate from the numerous landfills all around the country. Sometimes it even occurs naturally. So what’s the deal? Why don’t we use it more? It would seem the logical alternative. We could have tons of power cheaply. China and India have been doing it for years. Europe uses the stuff also. Is someone scared of Wisconsin become the energy base of America?
First, lets look at livestock. Most people complain that cattle stink. You drive by a cattle farm, dairy or otherwise and the odiferous malcontents of manure waft threw the air. There is a process for siphoning off the methane, which causes the foul smells off and being channeled into electricity with a device called a digester. A story out of Minnesota in 2001 discussed a dairy farm with one of these digesters that sold off the electricity from the methane and sold the manure as fertilizer. It doesn’t get much more fuel-efficient than that. The Habenschild family saved $700 a month in electricity costs and used less than half of the electricity. They sold off the rest of it for a premium price. They make money from milk, electricity, and manure. Businesses don’t get much more efficient than that.
The other thing is methane from landfills. Garbage is everywhere in America. There are barges full of it. Most towns and cities all over the country have garbage dumps somewhere. Tons of stuff gets dumped in these facilities too: newspapers, appliances, food scraps, and a lot of other trash. But they do generate methane. Last year in Simi Valley, California, a power plant that uses methane from a landfill and produces enough electricity for 2500 homes. That’s quite a few people powering their homes with TRASH.
These methods would be environmentally sound. HECK, they would IMPROVE the environment. Nuclear power is safe in most cases. Japan certainly has had good luck with it but it does create nuclear waste and if there ever was a problem well we saw what happened at Cherynobl. Coal is great. I live in Kentucky and coal is plentiful but it’s also controversial. Mines can be dangerous and mountaintop removal is about as environmentally unfriendly as one gets. Plus coal can burn cleaner but not completely clean. Nope methane would seem to be the way to go. It may not clean up the world or solve all the energy problems but all you need to get started is a digester and a shovel.
Most Americans agree we need to be less dependent on foreign oil. Most environmentalists hate using fossil fuels. The methane method would go a long way to solving both problems. Unless UCLA really gets the cold fusion thing going. Then it’s anybody’s game.
John Stith is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
