No, I know, not the usual fare here. But they\’ve made available that World Bank report on the effects of biofuels on food prices.
Both the EU and the US government have been incredibly stupid here: but then this is what you get when politicians try to pick winning technologies and then the special interest groups get their claws in.
A useful lesson: if you think government action is what is going to save us all from climate change then you really haven\’t been paying attention, have you?
Tsk, come on now… I think the right government action is going to save us from climate change.
Ethanol is a completely crap fuel. It absorbs water from the atmosphere corroding storage tanks and therefore needs a new infrastructure to handle it. It has a low energy intensity relative to petrol, so needs more litres for the same distance travelled. When made from corn, a tankful uses a family’s yearly food intake.
Moreover, within a few years there will be far better biofuels available and the ethanol investments will be left to rust.
One example http://www.gevo.com/index.php
Thanks for the link Serf, well done.
I’ve been hollering about corn-based ethanol for about 2 years now. Hasn’t done any good whatever. However, I find the World Bank’s estimate to be exaggerated to say the least. I can go with 25% but that’s about it. Come to think of it, I find most of what the WB produces a load of crap.