Re: UN Warns of Biofuels' Environmental Risk

On Thu, 24 Jan 2008 14:13:14 -0800 (PST), CCBlack
<ccblack120@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Jan 24, 2:37 am, "tscottme" <blahb...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://tinyurl.com/yrgrft

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- The world's rush to embrace biofuels is causing a
spike in the price of corn and other crops and could worsen water shortages
and force poor communities off their land, a U.N. official said Wednesday.

Speaking at a regional forum on bioenergy, Regan Suzuki of the U.N.'s Food
and Agriculture Organization acknowledged that biofuels are better for the
environment than fossil fuels and boost energy security for many countries.

However, she said those benefits must be weighed against the pitfalls - many
of which are just now emerging as countries convert millions of acres to
palm oil, sugar cane and other crops used to make biofuels.

--

Scott

The North American Union and SPP are just convenient retreats for the same
crooks and kooks that were telling you to panic about Y2K.

The new energy bill requires that the U.S. produce 36 billion gallons
of bio fuels per year by 2022. That sounds like a lot, but the U.S.
uses more that 320 billion gallons of oil per year. Of which nearly
200 billion gallons are imported.

Bio fuels alone cannot wean the United States off oil.

Let's say the country converted all the soybean crops into bio diesel,
and all the corn crops into ethanol. Each would only add up to about
7.5 percent of U.S. oil needs.

What about cellulosic ethanol, the much hyped bio fuel that can be
produced from grass, wood and other plant sources ? It's commercial
viability is a bit like the tooth fairy : Many believe in it, but no
one ever actually sees it.

Even with heavy federal subsidies, it took 13 years before the corn-
ethanol sector was able to produce 1 billion gallons of fuel per
year. Two and a half decades elapsed before annual corn ethanol
production reached 5 billion gallons, as it did in 2006.

But now Congress is demanding that the cellulosic-ethanol business
magically produce many times that volume of fuel in just 15 years. It
won't happen.

Chris

Don't leave out that they use about a gallon of diesel for
each gallon they produce.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: UN Warns of Biofuels Environmental Risk
    ... sugar cane and other crops used to make biofuels. ... The new energy bill requires that the U.S. produce 36 billion gallons ... Bio fuels alone cannot wean the United States off oil. ... and all the corn crops into ethanol. ...
    (misc.transport.trucking)
  • Re: Did you see this?
    ... (To then add 15 gallons of gasoline to, ... gallons of Corn alcohol? ... BIOFUELS PRODUCE MORE GREENHOUSE GASES THAN FOSSIL FUELS ... A new study has found that the growth and use of crops to ...
    (rec.autos.sport.nascar)