• Antony Theobald

Google, that energy hog, wants us to burn pig shit for energy here in North Cackalacky. Isn't that nice?

For Charlotte's Duke Energy, it is. Burning pig poo equates to carbon offsets for the coal-heavy company.

From Biomass Power and Thermal magazine:

In 2007, Google made a commitment to be carbon neutral and began to invest in renewable energy and purchase carbon offsets. The company recently expanded its renewable scope by endorsing a pilot hog waste-to-energy (WtE) facility in North Carolina that was constructed by Duke University and Duke Energy.

“We’re particularly proud of the hog farm project as it represents our new partnership with Duke University,” says Jolanka Nickerman, program manager of Google’s carbon offsets program. “The system reduces greenhouse gas emissions, generates electricity, makes for a healthier local environment and benefits farmers and communities economically.”

Read the rest of this article, by Matt Soberg, here.

Of course, we've got to do something with all the pig shit that's produced in our state.

From the Environmental Defense Fund, circa 1996:

North Carolina's more than 3800 open-pit hog waste lagoons are contaminating the state's drinking water, polluting its air and streams, and threatening the state's economy according to a report released today by the North Carolina Environmental Defense Fund (NCEDF). The report, North Carolina's Hog Lagoons: Pitting Pork Waste Against Public Health and Environment, details how the primitive system used to treat the 19 million tons of hog waste produced annually in North Carolina is threatening the state's economy, public health and environment.

Read on here.