Workers of the world, shove it!

Alan:
Congratulations! I am quite used to being accused of spouting "hogwash", usually by those who disagree with me, but I don't think I've every been labeled as a running dog of the "environmental sect". So you have achieved a first.

However, what you quote me as saying is confusing and contains statements I never made (i.e. harmful effects on internal combustion engines -- which I suspect is currently more a problem with carmakers who insist on one kind of fuel use).
For the record, here is what I did say (taken by the way from several consulting companies' world fuel reports):
--biofuel costs more to make than it is worth -- initially, yes, but after infrastructure costs, it is the equivalent of oil at about $45-$60 a barrel).
--raises food prices -- marginally, but many other supply chain factors, such as hoarding and rationing, have a much larger effect on food prices. Besides, how does converting tree cellulose to fuel affect food prices?
--leaves a bigger carbon footprint than it relieves; if you only count the carbon input costs to produce it and ignore the output costs - the removal of carbon from other sources and in other areas.

This post was not meant to be a debate on the causes of global warming or the use of food grains for ethanol (which I agree appears philosophically to be stupid). Instead it was more pragmatic -- a call to action to approach the BC situation more wisely in an economic sense, and do some good for the world at the same time.

It's been said that if you torture a statistic (information) long enough it will always tell you what you want to hear. So perhaps, your obvious passionate antipathy to ethanol fuel has blinded you to the rest of the blog post. It is a common problem when people become welded to information, and thus can't see beyond it to the larger picture.
Tony Wanless

Yes - Mr Wanless- the World is more democratic now than ever ! Especially if you happen to live in Democratic countries - such as Canada - where anyone ,like you , can, within their claimed " Human Rights " have the freedom to write hogwash - and not be required to back up their contentions with real facts !

Your offhand remarks that "biofuels " - such as Ethanol - do NOT cost more to produce , are less efficient , create even more CO2 emissions , than gasoline - and have harmful effects on todays internal combustion engines - is just plain WRONG , WRONG, WRONG !

Even the established gurus of the environmental sect - are running as fast as their Global Warming feet will permit - away from any such contention - even to the extent of now saying that "they never told the politicians to replace gasoline with biofuels " That's a fact that even the Europeans are only now addressing these established harmful effects of biofuels , and are now looking at REVERSING this move .

Besides the direct harmful and economically wasteful effect of the use of Biofuels- we now see the spectre of the indirect effects on the production and prices of basic food stuffs - around the World - and it's immediate inpact on the poor countries' populations .

Don't take it from me - just ask, or read the UN reports on this aspect that you manage to ignore, and mislead your readers .

Alan Webster P, Eng.
Surrey , BC