It’s no secret that I’m a tree hugging hippie vegetarian from Colorado, so when I first read about Panda Ethanol, I was doubly excited. Panda related and environmentally friendly. Of course, companies tend to use the panda as their symbol to emphasize their eco-friendliness, so it’s not so unexpected. The company has started construction on their first bio-mass fueled ethanol plant in Texas. From their site:

Panda Ethanol is working to help meet the nation’s need for clean, economic, alternative energy, which will decrease our dependence on hydrocarbons and foreign oil. Once complete, Panda’s five proposed 115 million gallon-per-year denatured ethanol refineries will supply the nation with clean-burning, renewable ethanol to help accomplish this goal.

Four of these state-of-the-art facilities will be fueled by gasifying cattle manure, a renewable fuel source, rather than using non-renewable fuels like gas or coal. Panda Ethanol’s commitment to such innovative technology ensures its production process is economical and energy efficient from start to finish.

A more appropriate name probably would’ve been Cattle Poo Ethanol, but it doesn’t exactly have the same consumer friendly draw to it, does it?

You can watch a news piece from Reuters, too.