There's a detailed post and a spirited comments thread on the issue of ethanol mandates and their unintended consequences over at at QandO. (via Coyote Blog) One of many points made by McQ is that the burning to clear land in order to grow more corn is putting more emissions into the air in one year than we can save by using the resulting ethanol for decades. Doubling of prices for wheat, corn and soybeans over the last two years isn't solely attributable to worldwide biofuels mandates (increasing worldwide demand for meat is a big factor too) but they are a significant factor.
A couple of related posts at EU Referendum on how the Europeans are dealing with their biofuels commitments and with the crisis in food price increases are worth a look. (EU Referendum is always worth a look.)
Posted by dan at February 27, 2008 12:47 AM