One person’s trash is another person’s ethanol; weighing the cost of oil sand development; and GE looks to drop CFL mercury down to one milligram per bulb. The weekend is in sight — welcome to the Friday edition of The Daily Five.

BlueFire Ethanol bets on household trash: There’s gold in that trash. A company called BlueFire Ethanol believes it’s not just better social policy to make ethanol from municipal garbage instead of food stocks — it makes more financial sense. Company CEO Arnie Klann says its current technology can produce about 70 gallons of ethanol from a ton of common garbage. Bluefire plans to locate its production plants at the site of large landfills, eliminating the need to transport stock to a refinery. The resulting ethanol can also be sold locally, further reducing overhead. (CNET News)

U.S. should weigh impact of Canada oil sands: A Canadian group says the U.S. should take a close look at the environmental impact of oil sand mining before committing to pipeline investment. A paper by the Washington-based Environmental Integrity Project says oil sand development is likely to aggravate climate change, destroy forests, and increase air pollution. The paper falls short of calling for an all-out halt to oil sand exploitation. (Reuters)

Shell Puts Up Hydrogen as a Fuel Option in LA Station: California remains one of the few places in the U.S. where owning a hydrogen powered vehicle is marginally viable. But drivers of hydrogen vehicles will find it a little easier to find a fill-up — if they live in Los Angeles. Shell says they’ll open a west L.A. hydrogen pumping station by the end of this month. it’s part of a pilot program sponsored by the Department of Energy. (Good Clean Tech)

Lighting an Efficient Future, Minus the Mercury: CFLs are a complete winner when it comes to energy efficient lighting, but concerns remain regarding their mercury content. This is of particular concern in areas where mercury recycling is unavailable or inconvenient — which amounts to pretty much everywhere. While its not possible to completely eliminate mercury from fluorescent tubes, General Electric says its investing heavily to reduce the per-bulb content to one milligram. That’s about a third of the levels contained by today’s lowest-mercury bulbs. (WorldChanging)

Electricity From The Exhaust Pipe: The exhaust from your car’s tailpipe is pretty hot — and therein lies another energy source. Researchers are looking at thermoelectric generators which would convert a car’s waste heat into electricity. The technology is close to the prototype stage now, but could eventually find its way into a new generation of fuel/electric hybrid automobiles. (Science Daily)

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