Posted 8/21/2005 03:52:00 PM by Douglas

Finally, the search for a renewable energy source has dropped all pretense and focused their attention on what they've been alluding to for decades: bullshit.

Soaring oil prices and government incentives are fueling increased interest in renewable energy sources such as cow manure.

That's how The Panda Group of Dallas plans to fuel a $120 million ethanol plant set to open next year in Hereford. The company said it will realize an energy savings equivalent to 1,000 barrels of oil per day by turning manure and cotton-gin waste into clean-burning fuel to power the plant.

"I see it as a valuable tool in our tool box," John Sweeten, resident director of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station in Amarillo, said of cattle manure's energy potential.

"Sixty-dollar-a-barrel oil recruits a lot of interest in biomass," Sweeten said. "At $10-a-barrel oil, there's not much interest."

Cattle manure can be used as fuel instead of coal or natural gas to create steam to run turbines, which create electricity.

Wow, what a truly exciting time to be alive! A dung fired ethanol plant. Just imagine the reaction from some of the great minds of the 19th century if they had seen this coming. Something tells me Carnot, the Curies, and Pasteur wouldn't have been so inquisitive if they knew people in the 21st century were going to be burning cow shit to distill government subsidized corn.