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What if you were a member of President Obama’s trusted cabinet? What advice would you offer on how to deal with the shrinking availability of clean global energy? Students from six Texas high schools got a chance to plug themselves into that problem during a recent summit hosted by the World Affairs Council of Houston.

The purpose of the gathering was to help teach students about the worldwide impact of the energy industry, and while some of the ideas that emerged could be described as ‘creative but of limited practicality,” the convocation got attendees fired up about a topic with which most were generally unfamiliar.

In one exercise, all 120 participants were presented with this scenario: It’s winter, and an oil pipeline in Europe has been blown up by terrorists. What should America do to help? The conclusion of the acting secretary of commerce: “We should send our biomass, like, all of our trash” for burning in Europe’s steam-generation incinerators.

While America’s European allies might not find that such a hot idea, the summit moderator, John Farrell of Marathon Oil Corp., told the Houston Chronicle he was encouraged by the students’ creativity. “I was impressed,” he told the newspaper, “by some of the questions the kids asked. I think they’re learning, and what we’re really hoping for is engagement, leadership and contribution.”

At the close of the summit, three groups were awarded medals for presentations and six individual participants received cash prizes for the posters they created.

No word about whether leftover paper scraps were headed for the Continent.