San Francisco: powered by pooch poop?

San Francisco, already one of the most progressive places in America, is looking to boldly go where no other U.S. city has yet gone: converting dog poop into energy. Within a few months, Norcal Waste, a garbage hauling company that collects San Francisco's trash, will begin a pilot program under which it will use biodegradable bags and dog-waste carts to pick up droppings at a popular dog park. The droppings will be tossed into a contraption called a methane digester, which is basically a tank in which bacteria feed on feces for weeks to create methane gas.

According to this Associated Press article, San Francisco canines produce roughly 6,500 tons of poop a year -- which, if you think about it, is....well, maybe it would be better not to think about it, actually.

My favorite quote in the article comes from recycling consultant Will Brinton, who said the plan will "give value to something we'd rather not talk about. San Francisco is probably the king of pet cities. This could be very important to them."

Mr. Brinton is saying, in other words: San Francisco, you're full of (dog)shit.

Although the technology used to convert dog waste to methane has been used in Europe for the last 20 years, San Francisco will be the first U.S. city to try the operation on a wide scale.

No doubt, many jokes could be made of this -- some having to do with feeding your dog burritos, BART accepting bags of poop in lieu of tickets, or possibly involving Paris Hilton, but I will leave such hilarity to your imagination. Although I do have one thing to say (and any regular reader of my blog will see this coming): if San Francisco is indeed successful in converting shit into energy, we should move immediately to set up a similar program in Washington, D.C. We wouldn't need to import another single barrel of oil, ever again.