"Wasteful" spending

This week, the News & Observer ran an article regarding the 2007 state law requiring utilities to acquire a certain amount of energy from agricultural waste by 2012. From the article:

"The law, designed to promote renewable energy and efficiency, requires utilities to begin getting some energy from pig and chicken litter by 2012.

The providers are seeking a one-year delay from the N.C. Utilities Commission. They're also asking to cut the minimum energy requirement from poultry waste starting in 2014 by a third.

[...]The utilities have been seeking proposals for waste-to-energy projects, but say they've gotten only limited and expensive bids."

Hopefully in the years ahead science and innovation will allow for more affordable options for converting waste to energy...sometimes I wonder though if anything will ever be considered "affordable" by utilities and taxpayers alike if it means a cost increase...