California Approves Cow Power Project — and the power does not come from putting cows in giant hamster wheels hooked up to generators:
The California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday gave the green light for Bakersfield startup BioEnergy to supply up to 3 billion cubic feet of bovine biogas — methane extracted from cow manure — to utility PG&E (PCG). [...] California’s nearly 2 million cows, most living on industrial-scale dairies, create a huge and costly waste problem. According to the PUC order approving the BioEnergy deal, a single thousand-pound dairy cow each day produces 10 pounds of “volatile solids” — that’s bureaucratese for poop — which can be transformed into 72 cubic feet of biogas. Dairy owners can dispose of that burden, clean up the environment and turn crap into cash by cutting deals with companies like BioEnergy. PG&E benefits as the biogas produced counts toward a state mandate that it obtain 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2010.