« Brad Pitt Building Green Slum | Main | Compost Queen Goes on Tree-Killing Spree »
August 23, 2007
Even Communists Can See Through Biofuel Boondoggle
Writing about biofuels for Fidel Castro's propaganda organ Granma, F. William Engdahl manages to get it half right. Yes, the biofuel industry is a scam that will accomplish none of its stated objectives, and that will drastically increase the price of food. But no, it's not part of a sinister plot to control the world.
Engdahl certainly grasps the overall picture regarding biofuels:
Leaving aside the faked science and the political interests behind the sudden hype about dangers of global warming, bio-fuels offer no net positive benefits over oil even under best conditions. […] The green claims for bio-fuel as a friendly and better fuel than gasoline are at best dubious, if not outright fraudulent. […] Ethanol is not some benign substance as we are led to think from the industry propaganda. […]
But the killer-diller about ethanol is that it holds at least 30% less energy per gallon than normal gasoline, translating into a loss in fuel economy per gallon of at least 25% over gasoline for an Ethanol E-85per cent blend. No advocate of the ethanol boondoggle addresses the huge social cost which is beginning to hit the dining room tables across the US, Europe and the rest of the world. Food prices are exploding as corn, soybeans and all cereal grain prices are going through the roof because of the astronomical — Congress-driven — demand for corn to burn for bio-fuel. […]
Prof. M.A. Altieri of Berkeley University estimates that dedicating all USA corn and soybean production acreage to bio-fuels would only meet 12% of gasoline and 6 per cent of diesel needs. He notes that though one-fifth of last year's corn harvest went to bio-ethanol, it met a mere 3% of energy needs. […]
Prof. David Pimentel of Cornell University and other scientists claim that net energy output from bio-ethanol fuel is less than the fossil fuel energy used to produce the ethanol. Measuring all energy inputs to produce ethanol from production of nitrogen fertilizer to energy needed to clean the considerable waste from bio-fuel refineries, Pimentel's research showed a net energy loss of 22% for bio-fuel — they use more energy than they produce.
To sum up: biofuel is a snow job.
If biofuel is inefficient and expensive, why bother to trick us into giving up food for it? Engdahl hints at a shadowy capitalist plot to control the world:
In the mid-1970's Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, a protégé of the Rockefeller family and of its institutions stated, "Control the oil and you control entire nations; control the food and you control the people." […] As the popular saying goes, "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you."
That is, Bush and his Big Oil cronies plan to starve the world into submission.
Actually, the real explanation is much simpler — though harder to comprehend. Governments around the world know that biofuel is an extravagant waste of time, money, and natural resources, which has already resulted in massive destruction of wildlife and sharp rises in food prices. But they subsidize it anyway to placate moonbats, who insist we "do something" about the fictional global warming menace.
On a tip from Kevin.
Posted by Van Helsing at August 23, 2007 6:54 AM
Comments
Using our corn to produce ethanol means less corn for consumption by ourselves, and as feed for the animals we consume as food. Take that to the next logical step, and you've got us importing the majority of our food, just as we now import the majority of our fuel. Would you rather import fuel, or food, if it has to be one or the other?
If you say the latter, remember all the fun we've had lately with various imports from our "friend," China. We can survive and still import most of our fuel (though why we don't just go get our own proven enormous reserves . . . Well, we all know why we can't, at least for the time being), but depending on foreigners to produce and export to us most of what we put into our mouths is about as insane a proposition as I've ever heard, since there are, what, about 100 people world-wide who have no animosity against us in their hearts?
Posted by: jc14 at August 23, 2007 8:55 PM
Actually, the real explanation is much simpler — though harder to comprehend.
Proverb - Never attribute to malice what can be explained as simple incompetence.
Though, I will say that Engdahl is right that just because you're paranoid does not mean the aren't out to get us.
Posted by: Brooklyn Red Leg at August 24, 2007 12:32 AM
ALL alternative fuel options are white elephants...every one of them must be subsidized in order to compete with oil.
Posted by: Ludwig Van Beethoven at August 29, 2007 12:33 PM
