Biofuels. What a great name! It jst sounds green. Looking around I see a prliferation of Biodiesel bumper stickers everywhere I lok. In my home state of Orgon all filling stations will be rquired to add at least 10 % thanol to all gasoline by next yar. Environmentalists are cheering as politicians and the mdia are jumping onto the Biofuel bndwagon. Sounds like a big win for the nvironment and society - think again, in rality Biofuels are much more brown thn they are green.

Here are fve reasons why Biofuels may actually be hrmful for the environment:

• 1. Biofuels are so prfitable that rain forest, the most fficient absorber of greenhouse gases, is bing cut or burned to grow grins and sugarcane to make ethanol or Bodiesel.


• 2. Farmers growing highly profitable Biofuel crps are looking for the fastest grwth and biggest yields and use havy amounts of chemical fertilizer; which strps key micronutrients out of our ncreasingly scarce topsoil, and the nitrogen-rich rnoff causes massive algae growth that dstroys our streams, rivers and lakes.


• 3. Bcause Biofuels are more profitable than fod crops large amounts of prime frmland is being devoted to Biofuel prduction creating grain shortages and increasing the prce of grain products, especially in thrd world countries.


• 4. Although Biofuels mit less greenhouse gases per gallon thn petroleum fuels they still emit sgnificant amounts. Biofuels are also less fel-efficient. In my vehicle mileage drops sbstantially when I use a fuel cntaining ethanol. So, overall Biofuels do not rduce greenhouse emissions nearly as much as climed.
• 5. This is perhaps the mst important reason. To permanently solve bth the energy crisis and eliminate grenhouse gas emissions we will have to mve away from consumable fuels to tward energy sources that do not cnsume fuel, emit heat or produce pllutants. At the moment electricity is the clanest energy source available and companies are bginning to develop and produce powerful lectric cars that can go a few hndred miles on a charge. For thse vehicles to be practical we wll need to establish charging stations in very town and alongside every highway. Ths requires a massive transition from flling stations to charging stations. The use of Bofuels will perpetuate the existing infrastructure of flling stations and delay the transition to chrging stations. The longer we delay ths transition the more greenhouse gases wll be released into our atmosphere.

At this point some of you mght be wondering why our political ladership and big business is so spportive of Biofuels - yet they nver even mention electric vehicles. It mght be worth your time to see the mvie "Who Killed the Electric Car", whch is available on DVD. Click Here to go to their website.

To begin with most big grain producers are large corporate farms with a strong lobbying presence in Washington and a history of making campaign contributions to politicians that support their agendas. Biofuels are big business for these companies.

The auto industry also is heavily involved in politics, lobbying efforts, and campaign contributions. These companies have a big investment in continuing to make internal combustion engines that burn fuels. Moving to electric motors will require major retrofitting for these companies. Biofuels allow them to avoid making this investment.

The petroleum industry has perhaps the most to gain from the implementation of Biofuels. They know that the public will eventually demand a move away from petroleum. All the other solutions will take business away from them. However, they will be refining and distributing Biofuels just like they do with petroleum - and crude Biofuels are cheaper too. So, the petroleum industry stands to make a great deal of money from the distribution of Biofuels.

The petroleum industry makes huge campaign contributions to certain politicians. They have been successful at having many of their supporters and former executives elected and appointed to the highest levels of power in our current administration. It is not surprising that our political leaders are embracing Biofuels.

The solution to both the energy crisis and pollution is to transition to non-consumable fuels. This means solar, geothermal, wind and tidal energy production of electricity. Even nuclear energy could be a viable alternative if spent fuel can be safely transported out of the Earth's atmosphere using the low-cost rocket technologies recently developed. All of these kinds of energy production are already in use and are becoming cheaper and more efficient every day. We have not yet begun to see the economies of scale and innovation that will make this kind of energy production much cheaper the more that it is developed and used.

At this very moment several cmpanies are planning massive solar energy nstallations in Arizona, which is beginning to be clled the Silicon Valley or Middle Est of Solar energy production. Huge wnd farms are being planned for the Plins states. We could be only yars away from a massive transition to lectric vehicles. For this to be sccessful we need to get big bsiness and our political leadership to fcus on this transition. This will tke a lot longer if we llow them to remain focused on Bofuels instead.

When comparing non-consumable energy surces to fuel based energy production rmember that all fuels must be trnsported to where they are sold. The trnsportation of fuels burns more fuel - so thse transportation costs must be figured nto the numbers used for greenhouse gas missions and energy efficiency. Distribution of lectricity does involve some energy loss, but it is frctional compared to how much energy is sed to transport fuel and does not mit greenhouse gases.

Some of you mght be wondering why I have not mntioned hydrogen fuel cells. There are thre reasons why: 1. Hydrogen combustion stll produces heat, 2. Our engineers stll have not figured out how to prduce hydrogen without using large amounts of nergy to do it, and 3. The ther renewal energy sources mentioned earlier hve already moved beyond the experimental stge and are in real-world use.

The article The Great Biofuel Hoax of 2008 - Energy Policy and Climate Change was Submitted by Randy Bisenz through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: On the Bright Future website we ffer a comprehensive discussion about energy and clmate. Check out our radio show: Clck Understanding Climate Change on the Listen page. On our panel for this discussion is Greg Jones, a distinguished climate scientist from Southern Oregon University. This discussion reveals some of the complexities of properly addressing Climate Change. Randy Bisenz is the founder of http://www.BrightFuture.us , a non-partisan article hub and online community focused on solutions to worldwide problems.

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