Problems with biofuels

Today's WRA editorializes that:

The biofuels boom is falling on hard times. And no wonder: For all the environmental and supply problems associated with fossil fuels, biodiesel and ethanol may be worse. And even Congress and the United Nations are taking note.

Congressional leaders are increasingly concerned about the future of agriculture in America's breadbasket, in part because water-intensive biofuels production is threatening to suck dry the Ogallala Aquifer.

Meanwhile, biofuels skepticism emanated forcefully from an altogether unexpected source: a U.N. official. Jean Ziegler, who represents a U.N. agency studying food issues, said he is "gravely concerned that biofuels will bring sudden hunger in their wake."

Moreover, it has been well documented that rain forests in Latin America and Indonesia have been hacked down, put to the torch and plowed under in favor of fuel-producing crops such as sugar cane and palm oil. The damage already done is incalculable, and worrisome from an environmental standpoint.

They're definitely onto something here. But I offer that the main underlying issue that needs to be addressed is land use policy.

Across America, but particularly in CT, land use policy leaves something to be desired. The sprawl and related traffic that Nutmeggers face on a daily basis is much due to sprawl... largely driven by the property tax. And part of Congressman Ron Paul's pro-environment platform is a repeal of federal subsidies that encourage the logging of national forests.

CT and America need to come up with coherent land use policies that will help address these problems with biofuels.

Nonetheless, there is real competition for land. And as I've said here before, this competition between the land for biofuels in the Great Plains and the land for oil drilling in the middle east needs to be addressed. For me personally, my preference is to deal with environmental concerns on American soil, rather than dealing with problems overseas.

Tim White