BILLIONAIRE T. Boone Pickens is flooding TV with ads warning that America is "paying $700 billion a year for foreign oil, and it's breaking us as a nation." This incredible overseas outflow of U.S. cash is "the largest transfer of wealth in the history of the world," the ads say. America's ravenous appetite for foreign energy is dragging this country toward insolvency.

Pickens - who has an interest in the compressed natural gas industry - wants wind and solar power to replace much of current U.S. natural gas usage, freeing methane to be used as motor fuel. If that would cut oil imports, it would be a blessing.

Here at home, a small methane plan is proposed by Charleston entrepreneur Tom Loehr. He and fellow investors in Charleston Clean Energy LLC want to spend $3 million for a plant to capture methane from the city landfill and burn it to generate electricity, which would be sold to the University of Charleston or other customers.

Why not? It sounds like a win-win opportunity to make "green energy" that doesn't involve fossil fuels. If private capital funds this enterprise, and it works, City Hall would get a 12.5 percent royalty from combustible CH4 from the city waste pit. And dangerous air pollution would be reduced.

At present, 4,000 tons of methane from Charleston's landfill leak yearly into the atmosphere, Loehr says. Methane is one of the worst "greenhouse gases" causing global warming, far more damaging than carbon dioxide. Collecting and burning it would produce water and less-harmful CO2.

West Virginia is the only state that has no landfill-methane generating plants, Loehr says. We think Charleston should approve this chance to turn wasted fuel into power, slightly reducing the need to import foreign oil.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says there "are approximately 445 operational landfill gas energy projects in the United States, and 535 landfills that are good candidates for projects." The untapped landfills "represent a lost opportunity to capture and use a significant energy resource," it says.

The EPA strongly endorses efforts to utilize the wasted gas, saying:

"These project go hand-in-hand with community and corporate commitments to cleaner air, renewable energy, economic development, improved public welfare and safety, and reductions in greenhouse [global warming] gases."

If Charleston takes one small step to save wasted energy, prevent pollution and reduce foreign oil imports, it's a step in the right direction.

Pickens - who has an interest in the compressed natural gas industry - wants wind and solar power to replace much of current U.S. natural gas usage, freeing methane to be used as motor fuel. If that would cut oil imports, it would be a blessing.

Here at home, a small methane plan is proposed by Charleston entrepreneur Tom Loehr. He and fellow investors in Charleston Clean Energy LLC want to spend $3 million for a plant to capture methane from the city landfill and burn it to generate electricity, which would be sold to the University of Charleston or other customers.

Why not? It sounds like a win-win opportunity to make "green energy" that doesn't involve fossil fuels. If private capital funds this enterprise, and it works, City Hall would get a 12.5 percent royalty from combustible CH4 from the city waste pit. And dangerous air pollution would be reduced.

At present, 4,000 tons of methane from Charleston's landfill leak yearly into the atmosphere, Loehr says. Methane is one of the worst "greenhouse gases" causing global warming, far more damaging than carbon dioxide. Collecting and burning it would produce water and less-harmful CO2.

West Virginia is the only state that has no landfill-methane generating plants, Loehr says. We think Charleston should approve this chance to turn wasted fuel into power, slightly reducing the need to import foreign oil.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says there "are approximately 445 operational landfill gas energy projects in the United States, and 535 landfills that are good candidates for projects." The untapped landfills "represent a lost opportunity to capture and use a significant energy resource," it says.

The EPA strongly endorses efforts to utilize the wasted gas, saying:

"These project go hand-in-hand with community and corporate commitments to cleaner air, renewable energy, economic development, improved public welfare and safety, and reductions in greenhouse [global warming] gases."

If Charleston takes one small step to save wasted energy, prevent pollution and reduce foreign oil imports, it's a step in the right direction.