The News:
A biofuels boondoggle
Perspective Section of The Denver Post
By Diane Carman
Article Last Updated: 02/22/2008 10:40:40 AM MST
With our polar ice caps shrinking, our coral reefs dying and our ecological clocks ticking, Earthlings are losing patience with the shameless gas-guzzling status quo in the United States. Even the barons of the old energy industries have abandoned their speaking points that denied climate change, and have begun demanding government action... But what can we do to reduce carbon-based emissions? More specifically, what can our government — and those who wish to take over the White House — do? It's hardly news that corn ethanol is a boondoggle. Research by Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen has found that it produces 50 percent more greenhouse gas emissions than gasoline when you calculate the nitrous oxide emitted from the artificial fertilizer poured on the fields to grow the stuff. Still, federal and state subsidies for the industry exceeded $5 billion — or about $1 a gallon — in 2006, greenhouse gas emissions and all.
The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the journal Science.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment