Well, we've been noting for some time that biofuel is really biofool. Here comes more of the science.
Professor Bob Watson, the chief scientific adviser at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said it would be wrong to introduce compulsory quotas for the use of biofuels in petrol and diesel before their effects had been properly assessed.
"If one started to use biofuels ... and in reality that policy led to an increase in greenhouse gases rather than a decrease, that would obviously be insane," Watson said. "It would certainly be a perverse outcome."
John Beddington, the government's current chief scientific adviser, has already expressed scepticism about biofuels. At a speech in Westminster this month he said demand for biofuels from the US had delivered a "major shock" to world agriculture, which was raising food prices globally. "There are real problems with the unsustainability of biofuels," he said, adding that cutting down rainforest to grow the crops was "profoundly stupid".
Some folks just refuse to get it. We talk and talk, we buy them books and scientific papers, and all they do is eat the covers. If you live in Oregon, you're getting about 20% less gas mileage per gallon because good ol' snoozy Ted Kulongoski decided that your gas should have ethanol in it to "fight global warming". It's a great deal: you pay for more gas to go the same distance, the state gets more gas-tax revenue, and the prices of everything from tortillas to milk shoots up.
That's your government at work.
