Ethanol coming back to bite us

I haven't been a big fan of corn-based ethanol as a replacement for fossil fuels, and two new studies published in Science add further evidence of the downsides of biofuels.

The first finds that clearing forest or jungle to plant biofuel crops produces a net increase in greenhouse gases.

And the second finds that by using U.S. corn to produce ethanol rather than using it for food also increases worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. Why? Because somewhere else in the world land is cleared to plant crops to replace the corn that was turned into fuel.

This is one of the few substantive disagreements I have with Obama. In my opinion, all government subsidies for ethanol need to be ended... now!

Read more here and my previous posts on the subject here.