Gourmet Gas Source

Table scraps from some of San Francisco's top restaurants are being turned into fuel, thanks to a state-of-the-art digester unveiled this week at the University of California at Davis. The methane and hydrogen gas produced will initially be used to power garbage trucks and other commercial vehicles, but could eventually generate household electricity.

Could the innovation be the silver lining to the United States' overconsumptive ways? State Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Gold River) seemed to think so, telling the San Francisco Chronicle that "maybe we can now look at America as the Saudi Arabia of waste."