E-Malt.com News article: USA: Anheuser-Busch reduces emissions to fight global warming

Anheuser-Busch, the nation’s largest brewing company and the second biggest brewer in the world, announced that it was reducing the carbon dioxide in its beers.

“From now on, all the beers we make will be 50 percent lower in CO2,” said CEO August Busch IV in a prepared statement.

Busch said that he became a convert to the lower-emissions cause after he viewed “An Inconvenient Truth”, Al Gore’s film about global warming. “It’s obvious that we have to change our manufacturing practices in order to save the Earth,” Busch said.

According to Busch, he shared a beer with Gore after a private screening of the film. Gore told him that over-carbonated beers and the excess flatulence they produce are contributing significantly to greenhouse gases, Busch said.

“If more gas goes in, more goes out,” Busch explained. “By using lower levels of carbonation in our products, we’re going to lower methane production and lead the fight against climate change.”

Busch said his company, will begin producing two low-CO2 beers, “Greenweiser” and “Greenweiser Light,” which will eventually replace the brewery’s flagships Budweiser and Bud Light. In addition, all A-B production facilities (which will be renamed Busch Green Plants, or BGP) will be surrounded inside and out by trees and other green plants to absorb excess carbon dioxide. Company beer trucks will use only biodiesel and hybrid fuels. Renewable wind and solar power will produce energy for the breweries, Busch said.

“We don’t have much time to change our ways, but if we all start brewing and drinking lower-carbonated beer, it will make our air purer, especially in the summertime and at beer festivals.”

“Think low gas - drink low gas,” Busch added. “A planet is a terrible thing to lose.”


04 April, 2007