This morning two news stories approached an intersection in my mind - the energy intersection.

One is about folks scrounging for wood to heat their homes in the NYTimes. As Oil and Gas Prices Rise, Wood Stoves Gain Converts

I couldn't help but think about those camping trips where we had carried a firewood in the trunk of the car along with tents and lanterns, but also the fact that we have cut up fallen trees now twice in the neighbor's yard for firewood. Friends insisted First Energy leave the many trees cut for power line clearance on their property. I have been warmed by that fireplace over the past couple years and have even brought some home to burn here.

The other article was in the PD: Wal-Mart closes store at City View mall

I recalled reading about methane capture in the Rocky Mountain Institute's report on the Cuyahoga Valley. So I quickly dashed off this note to Wal-Mart and copied it to RMI with a question, "Could it work?"

http://blog.cleveland.com/business/2008/09/walmart_closes_garfield_heigh...

Wal-Mart has a wonderful opportunity here. In a report by the Rocky Mountain Institute, the money in energy capture from methane is outlined. Closing the entire site and instead building the region's first methane capture facility would polish Wal-Mart’s sustainability image and could generate cash as well. RMI Cuyahoga Valley Initiative report 

Here's the headline - "Wal-Mart Enters Energy Market in strapped Northeast Ohio Suburb"

Partnering with well known energy independence advocate, Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute and his energy savvy staff, Wal-Mart has turned a nuisance into a goldmine.

Once cited by the EPA for dangerous levels of methane gas, the Garfield Heights, Ohio Wal-Mart has become Wal-Mart's first ever methane capture energy producer. Built on a landfill whose emissions threatened the store's customers, staff and neighbors, the retail giant took the waste to wealth approach and retooled the store site into a methane capture facility that now supplies energy to the struggling inner ring suburb of one of America's shrinking rustbelt cities. Now that's a perfect example of making a silk purse out of a sow's ear!"