Decades of warnings about the political, environmental, and long-term economic dangers of our reliance on fossil fuels have fallen on deaf ears. There's only one thing that gets this country serious about change: our pocketbooks. And with a gallon of gas now costing something like $15 a gallon, the wisdom of alternative energy sources are becoming clear. Why spend billions of dollars pumping black stuff out of the ground when we have millions of tons of brown stuff lying around waiting for us to use it?

That's right: the energy you use to heat your house or use your computer might be fueled by cow poop.

For years, researchers have studied manure as a fertilizer. But at a time when state and federal energy bills have called for increasing renewable energy sources, there is more focus on developing cow dung as an alternative to coal or natural gas.

"I see it as a valuable tool in our tool box," said John Sweeten, resident director of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station in Amarillo. "Sixty-dollar-a-barrel oil recruits a lot of interest in biomass. At $10-a-barrel oil, there's not much interest."

The Panda Group of Dallas plans to fuel a $120 million ethanol plant set to open next year in Hereford with cow manure and other waste.

The company said it will realize an energy savings equivalent to 1,000 barrels of oil per day turning manure and cotton gin waste into clean-burning fuel to power the plant.

It would be great to do something with cow poop. But it would be even greater to do something with human poop.

The waste you flush down the toilet could one day power the lights in your home. So say researchers at Pennsylvania State University who last week revealed they have developed an electricity generator fuelled by sewage.

Even better, the device breaks down the harmful organic matter as it generates the electricity, so it does the job of a sewage-treatment plant at the same time. Penn State's microbial fuel cell (MFC) harnesses chemical techniques similar to those the body uses to break down food - but diverts the electrons liberated in the reactions to produce electrical energy.

"There are extraordinary benefits if this technology can be made to work," comments Bruce Rittmann, an environmental engineer at Northwestern University in Illinois.

Many developing countries urgently need sewage processing plants, for example, but they are prohibitively expensive, largely because they use so much power. Offsetting this cost by producing electricity at the same time could make all the difference, says Bruce Logan, who led the development team at Penn State.

I hereby ordain Penn State's Bruce Logan as PoopReport's patron saint for hope. Mr. Logan: deliver us a browner green.