UN puts the brakes on biofuels

[Smurf-Herder]

Doah! ... :doh:

Now they finally get it. Nobody can do anything right; and the speculators jump from one sector to another.

UN urges biofuel investment halt
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7381392.stm

"The UN's new top adviser on food has urged a freeze on biofuel investment, saying the blind pursuit of the policy is "irresponsible".

Olivier de Schutter also wants curbs on investors whose speculation is, he says, driving food prices higher.

UN officials liken the rise in food prices to a silent tsunami, threatening 100 million of the world's poorest.

The use of food crops for alternative sources of energy like ethanol is one factor behind the price hike.

Mr de Schutter did not go quite as far as his predecessor in the job, Jean Ziegler, the BBC's Laura Trevelyan reports from New York.

Mr Ziegler had condemned biofuels as a "crime against humanity" and called for an immediate ban on their use.

'Predictable' crisis

But the new special rapporteur on the right to food did insist the American and European goals for biofuel production were unrealistic.

"The ambitious goals for biofuel production set by the United States and the European Union are irresponsible," he said in an interview for France's Le Monde newspaper.

"I am calling for a freeze on all investment in this sector."

The biofuel rush was, he argued, a "scandal that only serves the interests of a tiny lobby".

Calling for a special session of the UN Human Rights Council to discuss the food crisis, Mr de Schutter also said he wanted to find ways to limit the impact of speculative investments in food commodities like wheat, which had further driven up prices.

And the rapporteur, a Belgian professor of international law, said it was "unforgivable" that the international community had failed to anticipate the riots sparked last month by soaring food prices.

"Nothing was done to prevent speculation in raw materials, though it was predictable investors would turn to these markets following the stock market slowdown," the UN official said.

"We are paying for 20 years of mistakes."

[disrupter]

What you need is a very small local market, just to work through the technology,
& yes, for now corn derived ethanol.
that when you get [the presumed] other options of easy to grow, cellulosic biomass systems ready it will be an easy feed into this, and then & ONLY THEN do you expand it to a potential national system.

What we have now is just another corrupt government give-away to agribusiness hiding behind a smokescreen of FAKE greeness & FAKE energy independence.
It is just more fucking pork barrel, that not only doesn't create significant jobs, but ACTUALLY COSTS YOU & EVERYONE ON THE GLOBE MORE MONEY FOR FOOD.

And this is what we pay taxes for . . . ?

[Moby]

Maybe we'll start moving to an electric economy. Of course that will make the oil companies and sovereigns furious but it's the right thing to do for Americans.

[Cat slave]

Doah! ... :doh:

Now they finally get it. Nobody can do anything right; and the speculators jump from one sector to another.

UN urges biofuel investment halt
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7381392.stm

"The UN's new top adviser on food has urged a freeze on biofuel investment, saying the blind pursuit of the policy is "irresponsible".

Olivier de Schutter also wants curbs on investors whose speculation is, he says, driving food prices higher.

UN officials liken the rise in food prices to a silent tsunami, threatening 100 million of the world's poorest.

The use of food crops for alternative sources of energy like ethanol is one factor behind the price hike.

Mr de Schutter did not go quite as far as his predecessor in the job, Jean Ziegler, the BBC's Laura Trevelyan reports from New York.

Mr Ziegler had condemned biofuels as a "crime against humanity" and called for an immediate ban on their use.

'Predictable' crisis

But the new special rapporteur on the right to food did insist the American and European goals for biofuel production were unrealistic.

"The ambitious goals for biofuel production set by the United States and the European Union are irresponsible," he said in an interview for France's Le Monde newspaper.

"I am calling for a freeze on all investment in this sector."

The biofuel rush was, he argued, a "scandal that only serves the interests of a tiny lobby".

Calling for a special session of the UN Human Rights Council to discuss the food crisis, Mr de Schutter also said he wanted to find ways to limit the impact of speculative investments in food commodities like wheat, which had further driven up prices.

And the rapporteur, a Belgian professor of international law, said it was "unforgivable" that the international community had failed to anticipate the riots sparked last month by soaring food prices.

"Nothing was done to prevent speculation in raw materials, though it was predictable investors would turn to these markets following the stock market slowdown," the UN official said.

"We are paying for 20 years of mistakes."


Well duh! As I have been saying from day one..."how smart is it
to make your energy and food source one in the same"?
But then we need the UN to decide what is smart and what is not.
"Stuck on stupid" comes to mind again!

[Bill]

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for algae and the other possibilities for liquid chemical fuels.

There is no simple solution to the problem - altho discovering a way to get more of the lower grades of oil out of the ground would put off the problem to the next generation.

[Smurf-Herder]

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for algae and the other possibilities for liquid chemical fuels.

There is no simple solution to the problem - altho discovering a way to get more of the lower grades of oil out of the ground would put off the problem to the next generation.

Ending the moratorium on exploration and drilling off 85% of the continental shelf and building refineries would help.

BTW, what ethanol we now produce all has to be transported by truck rather than pipeline, because of environmental regulations, making all the biofuels more expensive to transport than oil.

[Cat slave]

And I hear that it takes as much energy to make as it produces. Then it has
to be transported.

[Bill]

Ending the moratorium on exploration and drilling off 85% of the continental shelf and building refineries would help.


So do it. I ain't stoppin you. I don't live near any coasts. And mostly I don't give much of a fuck about coastals, floridians, rich beach house owners, fishermen, and the sort of people who complain about such things.

We're killing all the coral and fish anyway, some people might want to make the oil companies actually pay if they damage things, but that's your problem.

BTW, what ethanol we now produce all has to be transported by truck rather than pipeline, because of environmental regulations, making all the biofuels more expensive to transport than oil.

You hear that? It's the worlds saddest song played on the world tiniest violin.

None of this matters in the long run. In the short run I don't care what you do, as long as you don't dump costs on the taxpayer or give leases away at a fractionof their real value.

[Smurf-Herder]

So do it. I ain't stoppin you. I don't live near any coasts. And mostly I don't give much of a fuck about coastals, floridians, rich beach house owners, fishermen, and the sort of people who complain about such things.

We're killing all the coral and fish anyway, some people might want to make the oil companies actually pay if they damage things, but that's your problem.



You hear that? It's the worlds saddest song played on the world tiniest violin.

None of this matters in the long run. In the short run I don't care what you do, as long as you don't dump costs on the taxpayer or give leases away at a fractionof their real value.


The point is, there's lots of area still left unexplored off our coastline, but environmental lobbyists have stopped any exploration since the 1970s on 85% of the area left unexplored. While Cuba and China will be starting a major drilling project just 45 miles off the coast of Florida.

There is no single major fix that solves the energy crisis. It's a combination of all solutions, uncluding using the resources we already have.

[Moby]

The point is, there's lots of area still left unexplored off our coastline, but environmental lobbyists have stopped any exploration since the 1970s on 85% of the area left unexplored.
Last year Exxon profits topped $40 Billion. That's not revenue. That's after all expenses, kick backs, bribes, political donations and lobbying.

Do you really think that the under funded environmental lobbyists can compete with that? If the oil companies really wanted to be drilling out there then why didn't we some legislation hit the floor in the past decade?

All the focus is on ANWAR and we know that Ted Stevens loves to profit from tax payer dollars but using up our last supply of oil today can seriously effect our national security a decade or 2 from now.

Regardless of what Fox, Glen, Rush and all tell you, there hasn't been any off shore drilling legislation presented that's been pushed in front of the American people as aggressively as many other issues.

OPEC's profits keep soaring if we don't drill off shore.
Oil company profits keep soaring if we don't drill.
Gasoline company profits soar if we don't build more refineries.

The first part in fixing this issue is identifying what needs to be done. The second is accurately identifying the road blocks.

[disrupter]

The Greatest Mass Extinction 247 million years ago was caused by GLOBAL HEATING.

We MUST become carbon neutral.

You will suffocate at 16% oxygen [or perhaps even worse at the rate we are going] at sea level & lower at higher altitudes.
90% of species went EXTINCT last time. It could be even worse THIS TIME.

This is the SURVIVAL OF YOUR OWN FUCKING SPECIES!

When will people wake up?