Blessings to Our Olympians and Plant Waste As Fuel

I could not write a blog on 8/8/08 without sending best wishes and blessings to our Olympians. The Olympics create a spirit in the hearts of every American that puts politics aside and we all stand together to honor our athletes. We forget about the pollution in China, we forget about whether we do or do not respect China’s political practices and we stand tall and proud every time we hear our National Anthem play. I can’t imagine how hard it must be to make it to the Olympics and what it takes. I just know that it’s hard, that many sacrifices are made and that my heart beats rapidly when I sit glued to the T.V. These Olympic Games are supposed to attract the largest viewing audience in history and I know that I will be watching and cheering on the men and women who chose to make all the sacrifices it has taken them to get there.

And now for some Mrs. Green Humor. If you have been reading my blog on a regular basis, I hope it’s fairly obvious that I love being Mrs. Green and writing about all things green and beautiful. And I love to inject humor whenever I can. I am not sure why I think this is funny but reading that BP PLC will invest over $90 million in a U.S. producer of cellulosic ethanol biofuels made from nonfood feedstocks such as plant waste made me laugh. Maybe it’s because I don’t understand the myriad of alternative fuels being developed and maybe the idea of fueling my car on plant waste just hit the humor bone.

Don’t get me wrong. I like the idea. I like any ideas being explored that include the words “alternative fuel” because it gives me hope. And using the kind of waste they described in the article I read makes such good sense because it is recycling of plant waste. Given the mandates of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2008, which requires the U.S. to produce 21 billion gallons of advanced biofuels such a cellulosic ethanol by 2022, everybody in the alternative fuels business better get busy!