So you want to go biodiesel, eh? Maybe you noticed that oil popped over $74 a barrel this afternoon - not quite the $95 peak of 1979, but getting there. Maybe you read the energy doomsday scenarios former CIA director (and hemp fan) James Woolsey has been pushing in the media lately. Or maybe you just want the subversive thrill of using McDonald's waste to power your personal green revolution.

OK, chemistry nerds, this one's for you. Some bright bulbs over at Rutgers University and UNC Chapel Hill have discovered a way to make liquid fuel - diesel, in fact - out of solid lumps of good old-fashioned coal. What's that? You say it's been done before? Well, sure. Germany powered much of its World War II machinery with coal turned to diesel by a handy bit of chemical voodoo known as Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, in which sources like biomass, natural gas, or coal are heated to release carbon monoxide and hydrogen molecules, which are then reformed into, among other things, liquid diesel. (Pay attention; there will be a quiz.)

New York middle-school science teacher Mr. Kenny Luna has hatched what he’s dubbed The Bright Idea! – a plan to publicly pressure Oprah Winfrey to reach into her deep pockets and give 50 million American school kids a compact-flourescent lightbulb (CFL). Since CFLs on average use 75 percent less energy than normal light bulbs, they can have a substantial impact on America's energy use.

As heating bills soar, penny-pinchers are turning to a cheaper source of warmth: woodchips. According to an AP article on the growing woodchip trend, Mount Wachusett Community College campus in Massacusetts started the trend four years ago: Instead of spending the usual half-a-million-dollar annual heating bill, the college ponied up a mere $31,000 for the woodchips, meanwhile reducing its greenhouse gasses 19 percent.

Most environmentalists agree that boosting fuel efficiency in cars is the number one challenge in the battle to scale back both America's greenhouse emissions and our dependence on foreign oil. So it's excellent news that states are stepping up to impose stricter fuel-efficiency standards—particularly at a time when federal leaders in Washington are shrinking away from the issue. Vermont has decided to follow California's lead and require that all new cars and trucks in 2012 emit 22 percent less carbon dioxide than today’s vehicles.