Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol

June 14, 2008
Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol

Silicon Valley is experimenting with bacteria that have been genetically altered to provide 'renewable petroleum'

“Ten years ago I could never have imagined I’d be doing this,” says Greg Pal, 33, a former software executive, as he squints into the late afternoon Californian sun. “I mean, this is essentially agriculture, right? But the people I talk to – especially the ones coming out of business school – this is the one hot area everyone wants to get into.”

He means bugs. To be more precise: the genetic alteration of bugs – very, very small ones – so that when they feed on agricultural waste such as woodchips or wheat straw, they do something extraordinary. They excrete crude oil.

Unbelievably, this is not science fiction. Mr Pal holds up a small beaker of bug excretion that could, theoretically, be poured into the tank of the giant Lexus SUV next to us. Not that Mr Pal is willing to risk it just yet. He gives it a month before the first vehicle is filled up on what he calls “renewable petroleum”. After that, he grins, “it’s a brave new world”.

rest of the story ... Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol

Exciting! Honda FCX Clarity

More information about Honda's FCX Clarify

Honda Announces First FCX Clarity Customers and World's First Fuel Cell Vehicle Dealership Network as Clarity Production Begins in Japan

Breakthrough zero emissions vehicle to be delivered in July

Beck + The list - Why gas is so expensive

here they are ... some of our brilliant "public servants" (right!)

These are the people who just voted in a partisan fashion to not allow drilling in the outer continental shelf.

From Glenn Beck's program today ...

The list

So why IS gas so darn expensive? There are a lot of reasons, but somehow the biggest problem (as usual) points directly to Washington DC. Democrats yesterday in a subcommittee voted basically to kill going to the outer continental shelf to drill for oil because there are 'other things we can do'. Glenn would like to introduce you to the people who are preventing us from drilling here at home, because, as Glenn says, these people should be famous. When the pitchforks and torches start coming out---we'd like to help clarify who was for or against us.

AGAINST

• Chair: Norman D. Dicks (WA)
• James P. Moran (VA)
• Maurice D. Hinchey (NY)
• John W. Olver (MA)
• Alan B. Mollohan (WV)
• Tom Udall (NM)
• Ben Chandler (KY)
• Ed Pastor (AZ)
• Dave Obey (WI), Ex Officio
  

FOR
Minority Ranking Member:

• Todd Tiahrt (KS)
• John E. Peterson (PA)
• Jo Ann Emerson (MO)
• Virgil H. Goode, Jr. (VA)
• Ken Calvert (CA)
• Jerry Lewis (CA), Ex Officio

Here is the subcommittee website -- they voted down party lines on this...

Estate owners sue Greenpeace for prediction

You have to love this ... Estate owners sue Greenpeace for prediction

The organisers’ graphic prediction on how global warming will affect La Manga has caused sales of houses in the coastal area to drop by 50 percent.

11 June 2008

MADRID - A group of real estate developers and property owners in La Manga del Mar Menor - a spit of sandy, low-lying coastal land and Murcia's premier beach resort - are threatening to take Greenpeace to court over its graphic predictions of what global warming may do to the area, which they say have caused house prices to plummet.

The lawsuit, which the plaintiffs plan to present unless Greenpeace agrees to an out of court settlement of almost EUR 30 million in damages, comes more than six months after La Manga featured prominently in a photo book published by the environmental organisation that was intended to shock Spain into action on climate change.

Estate owners sue Greenpeace for prediction