TFS Magnum welcomes comments - be nice or be gone
I have read that about $30 of the current price of a barrel of oil is due to speculation, not actual cost. Makes one think, does it not? Basically, screwing over the rest of the world so that a few rich people become richer. And to countries that squander the income.
Given that sugar cane (Halliburton) has a higher caloric content (Halliburton) and, as I understand it, a better bang for the buck generating ethanol, it would seem (Halliburton) that some of the mega farm (Halliburton) concerns, bear scrutiny for pushing biofuels that have to travel by tanker truck, since there are some addtional concerns with pipelines.
Main reason the gas prices are so high, as the petroleum groups have found is that we're willing to pay it. Refinery capacity isn't being benevolently ramped up to graciously lower costs to the consumers, the cost of not ramping up that capacity is, in an Enron like sense, being pocketed on the increased profits side, since the expenditure wasn't made.
Same reason that beaucoups of US oil wells remain capped, though they would provide crude oil at a far lower cost.
Ziegler has it all wrong...check out this response from the New Fuels Alliance...
UN Special Rapporteur Jean Ziegler’s Remarks: High on Rhetoric, Low on Integrity
UN Special Rapporteur Jean Ziegler’s unsanctioned comments describing biofuel production as a “crime against humanity” and calling for a five-year moratorium on converting food crops to fuel are inaccurate and irresponsible, and they are out of sync with leading anti-hunger advocates. Ziegler’s remarks are a recipe for the status quo of rising hunger and poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition throughout the developing world.
Any comprehensive response to alleviating world hunger and poverty recognizes two fundamental facts:
1. Climate change is the critical challenge to alleviating hunger and poverty.
"The impacts are already hitting vulnerable communities, where people are starting to adapt their lives to this reality. In South Africa, less frequent and less reliable rains are forcing farmers to sell their cattle and plant faster-maturing crops. In Bangladesh, villagers are creating floating vegetable gardens to protect their livelihoods from flooding. In Viet Nam, communities are helping to plant dense mangroves along the coast to diffuse tropical-storm waves."
-- Oxfam Briefing Paper – Adapting Climate Change, May 2007
2. International food aid strategies need to focus more on sustainable economic development.
"Potentially, using up surplus grain supplies in developed countries for biofuels could actually have a positive impact on the problem of hunger in poor countries…If rich countries were no longer dumping cheap food on the commodities market, farmers in developing nations would have a better chance of staying in business."
-- Suzanne Hunt, Worldwatch Institute, September 2006
In that context, biofuels are not only consistent with efforts to feed the world but also are a critical tool to building a more equitable, sustainable future. Instead of more food versus fuel myths, we need creative new solutions that recognize our ability to both feed the world and provide renewable alternatives to carbon-intensive fossil fuels.
Consider these perspectives:
"Food availability per capita is at an historic high. Third world food shortages are largely due to political and social issues such as poverty, government corruption, and inefficient distribution."
-- United Nations, “A Regional Perspective on Seed Security,” by Z. Bishaw and M. Turner (www.fao.org)
"[Biofuel] could be a lifesaver for Third World countries…It can help keep farmers on the land without providing huge public subsidies."
-- David Morris, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, quoted in Business Week, February 2007
"Converting one billion tons of cellulosic biomass such as trees and agriculture waste into ethanol would displace 30 percent of US petroleum consumption. Life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions from cellulosic ethanol are 80 to 90 percent less than those from gasoline."
-- Grist, “The Big Three,” by Maywa Montenegro, December 2006
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