Energy

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

What can you do with human waste? Besides flushing it?

That's a question that came to mind when we read about the United Kingdom's first-ever "Bio-bus." It's a tour bus that runs between the cities of Bristol and Bath. The tank is filled with biomethane gas generated from food waste and human excrement.

And it turns out that the bus isn't the only example of poo power.

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ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

A bus in Britain is making headlines for running on gas — and we're not talking about petroleum or natural gas. The Bio-Bus runs on biomethane gas that's produced by human sewage and food waste.

The Bio-Bus has 40 seats and a range of around 186 miles on a full tank. When it officially goes into service next week, it'll run as a shuttle between the city of Bath and the Bristol airport, along with other routes.

What would you do with thousands of tons of leftover nutshells? It's a question that Turkey — the world's third-biggest producer of pistachios, behind Iran and the United States — has been asking itself for years.

Usually discarded pistachio shells end up in landfills, but nut-loving Turks think they've found a far better solution by turning it into biogas, an alternative fuel produced by the breakdown of organic matter.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Here's a fight in Congress that either means nothing or means a lot. The Senate voted down a bill to force construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: