Imagine the view:
Imagine what a beautiful site it would be to take your kids to a park on the lake and say to them…I remember the day you could look out on the lake and not see oil-drilling rigs. Imagine the joyous day that you are walking through the metro parks and you come to a huge clearing on a path where there used to be trees. Well, this might not be too much of an exaggeration. Senate bill 193, which was introduced by Armbruster, would do just this. The bill states that there would be an oil, gas, and timber-leasing board created to lease out government owned lands for drilling and logging. There is currently 496,828 acres of state parks and nature preserves. The bill was designed to curtail the energy crunch for Ohio. However, common sense would say that there would not be enough oil in Ohio to curb the national market by any means. In the long run, someone will stand to make a lot of money off of this deal and everybody else will have to deal with the natural consequences and the permanent damage to the beauty of Ohio. This bill was introduced in October of 05’ and you should let your representatives know how you feel about the issue.
Now serving…Energy Alternatives:
An article from the Columbus Dispatch talked about scientists being able to turn plastic bottles into Engine oil. It involves converting recycled polyethylene, polypropylene and other plastics in a reactor. The plastic is put under intense pressure to create a feedstock paraffin wax that can be converted into gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel. Currently there are 25 million tons of plastics wasted every year. Scientist say that one ton of plastic equals ½ ton of oil. They also warn that burning this oil is not recommended because it will release carbon into the air contributing to the greenhouse effect. However, the new oil can be used in car engines where it will not burn and actually be more efficient than current engine oil. Not to mention that this plastic will not end up in landfills.
What about Landfill Gas? What do we know about it? The main landfill gas that is emitted is called methane. Methane is 20 times more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than Carbon Dioxide. This is why that methane has been a debated topic for a good number of years. Methane is released from landfills, natural gas and petroleum systems, agricultural activities, coal mining, stationary and mobile combustion, wastewater treatment, and certain industrial processes. However, new technology permits us to be able to trap the methane from landfills and use it as an alternative energy. Creative use of landfill gas includes heating greenhouses, producing electricity and heat in cogeneration applications, firing brick kilns, supplying high-BTU pipeline quality gas, fueling garbage trucks, and providing fuel to chemical and automobile manufacturing. So obviously the idea of controlling methane is very important to our environment. 
