Today: updates on biodiesel production, criticism of corn ethanol from a free-market ideology perspective, and Castro on food vs. fuel.
Biodiesel
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/41147/story.htm Global biodiesel production rose sharply in 2006, but growth should slow in the coming year as new German taxes cut demand, analyst F.O. Licht said in a report on Wednesday.
Heritage Foundation on Ethanol
http://www.heritage.org/research/energyandenvironment/bg2020.cfm The new ethanol mandate is perhaps the most disappointing program in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Since taking effect in 2006, this measure has increased energy and food prices while doing little to reduce oil imports or improve the environment.
(Comment: this kind of commentary is hard to parse. Much of it is just sniping, some of it is right-on, and one suspects a hidden agenda. For instance, most of the commentary says that ethanol is a wasteful and harmful fuel, but the second recommendation is to drop U.S. ethanol tariffs, which would increase ethanol consumption in the U.S. Go figure.)
Castro
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17850102/ In Thursday’s article Castro said more than 3 billion people in the world were condemned to die prematurely of hunger or thirst from plans by his ideological foe, the United States, to convert foodstuffs like corn into fuel for cars.
(Half of the world’s population to die from bioenergy production. And we thought malaria and AIDS were bad. Or did he mean “million?”)
