I remember when Discover published their first article about this. Many readers couldn't believe it, and wrote angry letters accusing Discover of falling for a perpetual motion scam.

I knew it wasn't a scam, but those objections pointed to what I saw as the real reason this technology (now called thermal conversion - "thermal depolymerization" was deemed too hard to say) was never going to replace imported oil. The feedstock, even if it was free monetarily, would not be free energy-wise. There's not enough turkey waste out there to replace oil, and it would be really silly to farm turkeys just to feed the thermal conversion plant. Assuming we could farm enough of them, which we can't.

I think this technology may prove to be a useful way of getting rid of waste - sewage, old tires, mad cow infected carcasses, etc. - but as a replacement for oil, it was never going to fly.

Basically, it's a form of recycling. Recycling is good, but it doesn't actually produce any new energy.