The dialogue around alternative and renewable energy has reached a fever pitch, and that's nothin' but good. The airwaves around the world are rife with groups and individuals espousing their own plans (and often their own agendas) to remove the burden of fossil/foreign fuels from their countries and the world.

In the U.S., the natural gas industry is pushing - shockingly! - natural gas. The oil companies are advocating - surprise! - increased indigenous drilling for oil. Some, like T. Boone Pickens, actually seem 100% genuine.

So, I was surprised to stumble on a unique approach that's original, practical from someone without a dog in the fight.

J.C. Bell is the founder and CEO of Bell Bio-Energy, Inc. Mr. Bell, with a background in engineering and agriculture, has developed and patented a process that converts just about any biomass - any living thing, like a plant - into hydrocarbons that can in turn be converted to crude oil.

It's alledged that Mr. Bell first got the idea after observing cows - ahem - pass methane. Thinking of the process that took place in the cows stomach to convert food to gas inspired him to pursue his biomass project.

Before you laugh, know that Bell Bio-Energy is slated to open 7 initial plants at U.S. military instillations this month - all inconjunction with the U.S. Department of Defense.

Bell's plan is to use data collected from the DOD phase of this project to refine the full-scale process. Once that process is defined, he thinks it could produce up to 500,000 barrels of oil per day within the first 18 months. He also predicts that full-blown production would reach 5-million barrels per day in 3-4 years.

Still laughing?

Of course, the perfect solution isn't to produce more crude. If the pollution side of the equation isn't in the mix, we still have serious issues to deal with. But biomass is biomass - Bell's process converts any biological materials into crude. That includes plants, lawn clippings, human waste, and several kinds of refuse.

Personally, I like Picken's Plan. But when you add this as a bridge (along with natural gas) to fruition, it seems like an obvious alternative.

A few weeks back, I wrote about the open letter/e-mail sent from the 12 principals of the major U.S. airlines sharing their take that speculation and futures trading has had most to do with rising oil costs.



The e-mail (and my post) both linked to a site called Stop Oil Speculation Now that made it easy to share this concern with your government representatives.

Just after I posted that piece I followed the link, filled out the form, and submitted it. Piece of cake.

Wellsir, today I got a response from my Senator, Saxby Chambliss. Which is to say it was from his office, and a typical form letter - well meaning, certainly, but a form letter, just the same.

I say typical because it touched on many of the hot buttons surrounding this issue - not just the issue of speculation:

The key areas of a responsible energy policy that will reduce gas prices, lessen our dependence on foreign oil, and strengthen our economy include: increasing our domestic energy production, improving energy efficiency through technology, increasing conservation, diversifying our nation's energy supply through the use of renewable fuel sources, and ensuring transparency in our futures markets.

The letter went on to explain the senator's stance on each issue and, of course, tout his and his colleague's "bipartisan" efforts to solve "... the current energy crisis."

I can't decide if this is a shell game or not. Sure, domestic production and alternative fuels are awfully important. But the one issue that government, industry and lobbyists allowed to happen - if not directly caused - is presented as an afterthought.

This, from my response to the form letter:

In the near term, I urge you and your peers to address the issue of speculation with the greatest enthusiasm and force. We have allowed regulations and laws to creep through deregulation to a point that futures trading has traded our futures in ways we've yet to realize. This behavior - while perhaps not technically criminal anymore - is at the very least abhorrent. Lobbyists and industry have been allowed to create wealth based on a scam unchecked, and government must accept responsibility and take action to correct this now. All of the valuable efforts you mention in your response will take years from which to realize benefits - closing the loopholes, focusing the FTC on speculators in the U.S., and working with other countries to scrutinize the behaviors of speculators overseas will offer short-term relief.

Our system and officials have failed us and we are looking to you to take action to fix this. I strongly urge you to focus your short-term efforts on the speculative markets and their current regulations to ensure this doesn't happen again, while we pursue the noble efforts you've listed.

Manufacturers - and all businesses - must react to this. I believe that the credit and energy crises are related in a fundamental way: They aren't random. They are the result of deregulation and opening loopholes through which the rats entered the pantry.

Whether you choose to follow the link above or not, get in the grills of your representatives.

My advice: Raise holy ****.

Tomorrow in the U.S. we'll be celebrating our country's independence from England. Every country has their national holiday to celebrate itself. July 4th is when we eat too much and blow stuff up.

Hey, we're Americans. It's what we do.

But this year is different. There are many chickens coming home to roost that aren't just affecting my country directly - our world is seeing fundamental change, and it's awfully troubling these days to play the tape through to its end.

It's pretty clear to me that most everything that ails our world these days boils down to energy - where it comes from, who uses it, and its byproducts are challenging us all economically, politically and morally.

Sure, economies get screwed around and nature always comes around to remind us that she's in charge. But to me, our most serious challenge that we can do something about is energy and how it's used.

In the most recent Time magazine (U.S. version), in an article titled "10 Things You Can Like About $4 Gas," the number 1 thing to like is "Globalized Jobs Return Home".

The world suddenly seems big again. A family of four can't fly cross-country for much less than $2,000. The cost of shipping a standard 40-ft. (12 m) container of couches from Shanghai to New Jersey has tripled since 2000. Trucking carrots from Mexico to Georgia makes less and less economic sense.

In more industries, such as steel, lawn-mower batteries and upscale furniture, doing business in the U.S. is starting to look slightly more feasible.

All true, and it's a trend you'll see gaining steam in the coming months and years. But I fear that manufacturing in general - and the U.S. specifically - will fall back into a familiar reaction to this. Whenever a threat has turned out to be less deadly than was first believed - the threat to the U.S. manufacturing base from other manufacturing sources (Japan), the threat of outsourcing (1980's) - manufacturers heaved a sigh of relief and got complacent again until the next threat came along (China). Then everyone acted surprised, like it never happened before.

Maybe that's human nature. But in the case of energy, we have an opportunity now to do something bold even if the pain of outsourcing begins to ease from work pulling back to less expensive locations, logistically speaking. We all need to come together toward an initiative to wean ourselves now from traditional, less renewable, fossil fuels and high carbon footprints. We need to adopt alternative energy sources, and we all know it. But we can't.

Cause we don't have the huevos.

This morning, I came across an op-ed piece in the latest Industry Week that represents my thoughts, and I'm pretty sure it will resonate strongly with you. In "More Than Just Earth-Friendly, Going "Green" a Route To Jobs and Prosperity, John Madigan points to a logical solution and how to get there:

Manufacturing ... actually creates both wealth and jobs. Developing "green" manufacturing technology also offers opportunities to become a net exporter of environmentally friendly products and processes. "Green" manufacturing, and the technology to support it, can create the required $20-per-hour jobs to sustain a strong middle class while helping to solve air, energy, water, and food crises.

Create a government-sponsored program, similar to the "Apollo Program," to create jobs based on solving environmental needs. Such a program, focused on self-sustaining and renewable solar, wind, water turbine, clean hydrogen energy and desalination of the ocean's water, could jump-start a revival of U.S. manufacturing.

• Incent companies, by tax policy, which make environmentally friendly and sustainable end products here.
  
  
• Create prizes to reward innovation for environmental friendly products manufactured here.
  
  
• Utilize existing tax supported agencies such as NIST manufacturing centers to: Define and teach best practices to manufacturers through shared network of knowledge resources; Benchmark on the successes -- Toyota, Wiremold, Danaher Corp. and employ proven lean executives on oversight boards; Challenge "economy of scale" thinking and standard cost accounting for more market-based accounting systems; Focus on small businesses or start-up companies and nurture "incubator green manufacturing zones";
  

I do not agree with some of Mr. Madigan's points in the article (his take on productivity, for example) but I wholeheartedly agree with it in spirit.

We need a bold initiative, similar to the U.S. Apollo or Russia's Luna programs, that will stimulate our collective creativity and find real solutions while creating wealth.

According to NASA, there have been over 1500 "spinoff" technologies from the Apollo lunar program to benefit business, health and wealth. We need that now, but on a global scale. The problem is too large, too complex and affects too many of us politically to tackle it in a vacuum.

I hope that we can find the resolve to address this as one people - for all of us, including manufacturing.

Happy Independence Day to all of you, no matter where you are.