Re: Are Biofuels the Answer?

I think most of the posters here are well intentioned, but honestly are missing the bigger picture by quite a long margin

- Biofuels vs. Food production: Absolutely true that biofuels made from corn, soy and other crops are in competition with food supplies. This is an INCREDIBLY complex issue, however it would be easy to solve by simply saying "No.. no fuel from industrially produced sources that use food crops as origin. No biofuels from arable land that is currently in use to produce food crops. No ploughing of virgin land to produce fuel crops." which would force production of cellulosic ethanol.and other by product type fuels, as well as have other positive effects. The downside is that generally the quality of corn, wheat and soy in this country is complete crap anyway, and I don't know that  raising its price so that organically grown, heritage varieties can compete is a -bad- thing. Like I said.. complex.

-  It could also be done that NO tax breaks for crop produced biofuels exist whatsoever, and that ONLY alternative methods recieve subsidy, such as cellulosic ethanol, algae oil, and bio waste reprocessors. We should also implement methane strategies that wouuld allow its use for home fuels (cooking and etc).

But really, the absolute problem here is that we have too many people on the planet. Just before I was born, the world's population was 3.3 Billion.. now it is more than double that. And by the time I die, if people are not reigned in, it will be something like 9 Billion. My hope is that we don't die as a species through the inability to understand that we don't have unlimited reproduction rights.  Because that is what is truly driving the problem.. not just oil consumption.