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Look into the future of "Zero Waste" and you'll see the rear end of a cow:

For years, the cows at Green Mountain Dairy here in Vermont produced only milk and manure. But recently they have generated something else: electricity.

The farm is part of a growing alternative energy program that converts the methane gas from cow manure into electricity that is sold to the power utility's grid.

But this new program is only made possible through the contribution of taxpayers:

Residents and businesses that get their electricity from the program pay a premium of 4 cents a kilowatt hour above the typical rate of 12.5 cents. Most of that money goes to the farmers, who must purchase their own equipment, which can run up to $2 million per farm. Most farmers expect to make back their investment in 7 to 10 years.

The brothers who own Green Mountain Dairy, Bill and Brian Rowell, were looking to squeeze more profit from their farm, where they have 1,050 cows and have begun acquiring 600 heifers. Milk prices had dipped and they wanted another source of income.

They also thought that the huge amount of waste their cows produced could be used for something other than fertilizer. So they decided to give electricity a try, armed with about $750,000 in federal, state and utility company grants.

It's a great story, where the Cow Power provides electricity to 300-350 homes a year.

"We're making a resource out of a waste stream," said Bill Rowell, who is running for the State Senate. In return, the Rowells receive a payment based on the wholesale cost of power, which averages about 7 cents per kilowatt hour, plus the 4-cent premium. Mr. Rowell said they earned about $200,000 from electricity annually, and with the additional cows should receive $235,000 to $240,000 in revenue from electricity.

But wait! There's more:

The Rowells are also transforming commercial waste. The farm processes about 500,000 gallons of waste and outdated ice cream from Ben & Jerry's each year and puts it in the digester. The free ice cream, which the company drops off, helps the Rowells generate more electricity and saves Ben & Jerry's the cost of disposing of it. “We’re improving our processes, and they’re improving theirs,” Mr. Rowell said.

The digester produces more than electricity. After 21 days, the waste is pumped through a separator, which siphons off the liquid into a silo and drops the solids into a barn.

The liquid manure is used as fertilizer, while the solids are used for cow bedding. The bedding saves the Rowells thousands of dollars a month on sawdust, and they sell the excess to garden stores.

Remember, though, that these programs are only made possible by all of us taxpayers getting together to contribute enough money to jump start them. Many problems are just too big for individuals to solve themselves, and that's why government intervention is necessary for certain nascent industries, like those servicing the Green Economy.

Hopefully we can turn the corner, finally, on the last 30 years of demonizing the government and realize that there is a positive supportive role for government to play in our lives. Remember: Government is only a tool, of the people and by the people, and it's not some "other" entity working against us. If we are to move forward in the new Green Economy of the 21st Century, we must move past the ideology of Ronald Reagan, who said, "Government isn't the solution, it's part of the problem." In fact, the exact opposite is the case today...

Vote wisely on November 4th with this in mind...

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