Ok, maybe not Petroleum but how about SBP Bio-Diesel? This takes us right back to that slush-fund $30,000 seed money issue because here now we can table a totally new idea for all cash-strapped municipalities everywhere: let's get into the energy business by turning our yard and kitchen waste into profitable bio-diesel!

"The portable unit that sells for $10,000 resembles a gasoline station pump and nozzle ... Instead of tapping gasoline from an underground tank, the pump's back end plugs into home power and water supplies to make ethanol for as little as $1 a gallon (that's $0.26 at 3.8 liters/gal)."
[ Kick the oil habit and make your own ethanol ]

Three of these units, times the number of $0.50 litres that the average Sauble Beach summer weekend might consume minus the $0.26 cost per litre? We can wait for the (foreign) oil companies to do this for us, or we can finally find a solution to the municipal-level composting process! And is it really that simple? According to the UK Guardian, very nearly:

"If you can collect your own oil it works out at about 15p a litre. Otherwise you can buy in your waste oil for about 30p, so you are getting diesel for about 45p. That's a big saving on the forecourt price." He is selling 15-20 biodiesel machines a week and has sold 800 in under a year to taxi firms, hauliers, restaurants and others.
[ At 15p a litre, home-brew biodiesel is fuel of the future ]

Just $10,000 gets us into a pilot study; we can't even buy a foolscap consultant's report for that kind of money! Even if stuck we're buying the source organic waste, compared to $1.22/litre for the petrol-stuff (and even more for Old Diesel) we are still way ahead of the game. And what about the scale of operation? Can we really expect bio-diesel to make a dent in the energy picture? Are we dreaming? According to this AFP story, Brazil has already made it all come true:

Biofuel and other derivatives from sugarcane have for the first time overtaken hydroelectric power as an energy source in Brazil, according to an annual official study released Thursday. Ethanol and pulp from sugarcane in 2007 accounted for 16 percent of Brazil's total energy output, up from 14.5 percent the previous year, the National Energy Evaluation showed.

The contribution of electricity generated from hydro power stations remained stable at 14.7 percent.
[ Sugarcane biofuel becomes Brazil's second energy source ]

What was it O.Henry said about Canada being too much of everything, mostly trees? This just makes so much sense in so many ways. We have the gift of the whole Wiarton-Keppel Airport landscape as a safe and available location tailor made to brew the stuff, we have a captiveeager audience of sasonal cottagers, boaters, RVs and other petrol-hungry devices that are probably taking second looks at whether they think a vacation in the Bruce is a viable option within their budgets (don't forget, food prices have shot up too) and here we are struggling with an abundance of farm waste, forest waste, garden waste and only god knows how many fry-wagons.

It would be like shooting fish in a barrel!

Hmmm ... mega-kettles of borscht-cheap bio-diesel, high-power off-shore wind mills, hey, with just the tiniest little nudge, this place could be the next Newfoundland!