05/27/08 Renewable Energy

You can please some of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time. It was true when Abraham Lincoln said it nearly 150 years ago and it still stands true today; as Waste Management, a major landfill and waste removal company can attest to. Waste Management and other waste removal companies are collecting methane gas off of their mountainous piles of garbage and sending it to plants which turn it into electricity. This process can produce enough energy to power more than 2,500 homes, and is a large potential source of clean energy. A landfill as renewable energy seems like a win/win situation for everyone. Yet Nathanael Greene, the director of renewable energy policy for the Natural Resources Defense Council says "touting the benefits of landfills was akin to putting "lipstick on a pig". Instead, we should be trying harder to reduce waste." Yes, Mr. Greene, we should all work at reducing waste. But in the meantime isn't renewable energy off of our ever growing waste piles at least a step in the right direction?