Superbug: The energy crisis and "Oil 2.0"

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Here's an interesting article in today's Times (U.K.) that's definitely worth a read:

Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol -- Silicon Valley is experimenting with bacteria that have been genetically altered to provide 'renewable petroleum'

So far this "bug fuel" can only be produced in the lab, in beakers, but, even if it could be produced for general consumption on a much larger scale, enough to make a dent in the energy crisis (and America's dependence on non-renewable foreign oil), the problem is that these "bugs" still produce crude oil.

And "a product that is interchangeable with oil" may not be the right solution when it comes not just to the energy crisis but to the climate crisis more broadly.

To be fair, though, the company in question, LS9, insists that "this "Oil 2.0" [would] not only be renewable but also carbon negative -- meaning that the carbon it emits [would] be less than that sucked from the atmosphere by the raw materials from which it is made."

And that's pretty green indeed.