Biofuels Not the Solution

Biofuels Are the Latest Greenscam

(A guest contribution)

By Karen Orr, Water and Wetlands Issue Chair and Energy Committee Member

Sierra Club, florida Chapter: From The Pelican, Summer 2006 Issue

The movement toward biofuels as an environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels is a greenscam with potentially disastrous consequences.

The Bush brothers, a cabal of giant agro businesses, their paid consultants and political cronies are behind a series of initiatives that involve massive taxpayer-funded subsidies to large environmentally destructive corporations. Sadly, they're aided by a number of well-meaning but misguided groups and individuals.

Biofuels derived from corn, palm, soybeans and other crops are not only environmentally destructive, they can't be produced profitably without massive subsidies -- subsidies that should be used for environmentally viable solutions such as conservation/efficiency initiatives and wind and solar energy.

Biofuels are an economic, environmental and humanitarian disaster:

Ø The production of biofuel from crops consumes more energy than it produces.

Ø The production of biofuel from crops will lead to more air pollution, irreversible soil depletion, natural gas depletion, water depletion and pollution, erosion, forest destruction, higher use of fossil fuels, pesticides, fertilizers and harm to animals.

Ø Crops to produce oils to meet the demand for biofuel are directly destroying tens of thousands of square miles of rain forest now.

Ø Fertilizer for biofuel production will lead to a massive increase in phosphate strip mining, destroyed wetlands, poisoned water and disturbed river systems.

Ø Conversion of U.S. farmland from food production to fuel crop production will lead to dependence on foreign nations for our food supply.

The overuse of toxic agrochemicals on subsidized Midwest corn crops has created a poisonous runoff that produces the gigantic summertime "Dead Zone" in the Gulf of Mexico. This 5,000 to 10,000 square-mile chemical gumbo suffocates all Gulf of Mexico marine life that cannot escape it.

The subsidies required to make biofuel production "viable" are more corporate welfare to the same giant agro companies damaging the environment now. They divert funds from real solutions such as conservation/efficiency initiatives, public transportation systems, increased use of solar and wind energy, and sustainable small-scale food farming vs. massive monoculture fuel crop production. Government mandates of biofuels for transport will further hasten environmental destruction.

We can't grow our way out of the impending energy crisis with more destructive practices that fuel more cars for more people to drive on more roads to more parking lots to buy more junk. There must be a massive shift in our thinking, behavior and consumption.

The biofuels scam must be stopped in its tracks. If it proceeds, we'll plunge further into debt, destroy irreplaceable natural resources and send another portion of the biosphere up in smoke.

For more information on biofuels, see:

Ø The Energy Justice Network fact sheet at www.energyjustice.net/ethanol/factsheet.html

Ø Feeding Cars Not People at

www.monbiot.com/archives/2004/11/23/feeding-cars-notpeople

Ø Worse Than Fossil Fuel at

www.monbiot.com/archives/2005/12/06/worse-than-fossilfuel/