Close on the heels of the leak of a report by the European Union's own research organization that concludes that biofuels cause more harm than good, a committee of British parliamentarians has reached the same conclusion. They warn of skyrocketing food costs, rainforest destruction, damage to wildlife and negative impacts on water usage. Gee, you'd think they've been reading Blue Crab Boulevard.
Plans to promote "green" petrol and diesel made from crops will do the planet more harm than good and should be scrapped, a committee of MPs have said.
Their report accuses ministers and the EU of being "reckless" in subsidising fuels made from plants in the absence of international agreements to protect the tropical forests.
The Commons environmental audit select committee warns that growing crops such as wheat and sugar beet in Britain to make fuel would cause a rise in the price of food, and make it harder to meet targets on water quality and the conservation of birds, plants and animals.
The MPs say an immediate moratorium should be imposed on "expensive and inefficient" subsidies directed at "green" fuels.
Late to the party, but they finally made it. As the report points out, there are severe problems with the fixation on biofuels. Yet the true believers keep pimping it as salvation. Maybe the politicians are beginning to wake up to the bill of goods they are being sold, however.
Some feeble minded thoughts: 1) Market pressures are kicking in. Scuttlebutt has it that the new ethanol plant at Trenton, NE is not buying new crop corn as the price is too high. If something doesn’t give they will shut it down until market conditions improve. 2) Our ruling class likes to take their cue from Europe. I am waiting for a reaction from the dems and repubs. Somebody should ask the candidates about the EU./UK findings. 3) Ethanol production is one of the arguments for not drilling our own oil. Shutting down ethanol weakens this argument. 4) My thinking is that little will be done here to overtly shut down ethanol production unless it becomes an issue with the voters. So far I haven’t seen that. But there are other things Government can do, such as dropping the import tariffs on ethanol. While not solving the world problem it would cripple production here, which needs the protection to stay profitable.
Ethanol is good for two tank full. The first time you buy and fill-up in expectation of what you will get for your money. The second tank is to verify what the results were from the first fill-up. After two, you will never buy another tank of E85. That is the story of ethanol in a nutshell.
I am sorry to say I agree with the feebleminded comment above. It is very important to the rulers in SEEN to be in agreement with Europe. Drilling new oil wells in the USA is not on the table, but nuclear MAY come around, especially since France gets 80-90% of its power from it.
Keep in mind that the only “new fuels” to be found in the recent “energy bill” were bio-fuels, so on a net-gain/net-loss basis, it generates negative “new” energy for our country.