Biofuel Disaster – Environmentalists Backpedalling Big Time, Europe’s Plans Like Adding 26 MIllion Extra Cars To Its Streets

Not long ago, biofuels were vigorously pushed with great enthusiasm and urgency by environmentalist groups, for example Greenpeace here:

Instead of cutting tax on fuels that wreck the climate, Gordon Brown should use this week’s budget to boost genuine green fuels like biodiesel, hydrogen and green electricity.

And Greenpeace here:

Although the plant-based fuel is not pollution-free, it is significantly cleaner than its petro equivalent and causes just half the damage to the climate.

Or take a look at this April 2007 Greenpeace Fact Sheet here. And so it was with many environmental groups.

And as a result, governments, pressured by the enviro-groups, and ever so eager to rescue the planet from the imminent climate catastrophe, went hog wild implementing programs and subsidies to launch the biofuels boom. The targets were ambitious.

By 2020 9.5% of Europe’s demand for fuel by its transportation sector would be supplied by biofuels made from climate-friendly sources like oilseed, palm oil, sugar cane or sugar beet. It became a boom for Europe’s agriculture. Thousands of farmers have since invested heavily in new agricultural machinery.

The race to be the greenest in Europe, and the whole world, was on.  The science of global warming was settled after all, and biofuels were a big part of the answer. Europe would lead the way in the planet’s rescue and be the hero.

Things have since gone terribly wrong.

Now, it turns out, according to the newest study (by the very groups that spurred the madness on to begin with), Europe’s targets are going to have the opposite effect on the planet. Fulfilling its biofuels plan will mean converting 69,000 square km of forests into agricultural land – that’s an area twice the size of Belgium.

Not surprisingly, few bothered to question the science behind global warming and the possible impacts biofuels would have on the earth’s ecosystems and food markets. Those  who did, were vilified and slapped down. Us sceptics are all too familiar with that.

Today the German online Mananger Magazine reports here:

According to a new study, the planned expansion of agricultural land for biolfuel will damage the climate more than the fossil energies they are supposed to replace. Millions of tonnes more CO2 have been released as a result.

Manager Magazine writes that nine major environmental organisations have commented on a new study put out by the London-based Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) saying biofuels will produce far more CO2 instead of less.

The growing use of biofuels in Europe will lead to an increase in climate damaging CO2 emissions because huge tracts of land will have to be transformed into agricultural crop fields worldwide to supply the needed biofuel.

IEEP researchers studied the official renewable energy plans of the 23 EU member countries up to 2020. Germany will be mixing 5.5 million tonnes of biofuel with its gasoline and diesel fuel.

As a result this means that annually up to 56 million tonnes of CO2 will emitted. That equals an additional 12 to 26 million cars on Europe’s streets.

A far more damning commentary appears here at the European Voice:

The next time Europe comes up with an idea to save the planet – run!!

9 responses to “Biofuel Disaster – Environmentalists Backpedalling Big Time, Europe’s Plans Like Adding 26 MIllion Extra Cars To Its Streets”

  1. R. de Haan

    This isn’t new.
    Articles, reports and publications are available at SPPI.org for years now.

    Hydrogen by the way is not a fuel but an energy storage medium and it’s certainly not green. It takes a lot of power to produce hydrogen.
    Production, storage and distribution requires incredible expensive infrastructures and expensive tanks because of their insulation.

    The hydrogen economy is as devastating as the damaging Palm Oil farms.

    How often do we have to repeat that green equals death and destruction.

    This ideology is starving people because they have made our food chain compete with the fuel chain.
    They destroy unique habitats to make place for mono cultures of palm farms where no animal or human can live.
    Besides that it often takes incredible amounts of water to produce bio fuels like ethanol.

    The Eu participated to the upcoming fiasco by declaring palm farms tropical forests.

    Our EU including the Green Movement and the UN is not only crazy, they are dangerous and should be shut down.

    [-snip].

  2. R. de Haan

    Besides the “environmental” and human disaster of the bio fuel scam.
    Do you have any idea how incredibly vulnerable our civilization will be if our energy chains depends on crop based fuels, solar and wind energy?

    One VEI 7/8 volcanic eruptions causing world wide crop losses would stifle and risk our entire civilization.

    World wide crop losses due to volcanic eruptions have happened in the recent past and will happen in the future.

    The EU is slowly turning our states into Banana Republics of the worst possible kind.

  3. R. de Haan

    Search for extensive reports about bio fuels, bio diesel, ethanol and palm oil at this link:
    http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/search.html

  4. Beano

    Ron, one VE 7-8 volcanic eruption and Bio fuel would the least the planet would need to worry about. Even a VE 6 would be catastrophic. At least the greens would probably be happy – the worlds population would be significantly dented.

    The real crime is the amount of Asian rain forests that are being slaughtered to produce palm oil.

  5. R. de Haan

    Right Beano it’s a crime, no more no less.
    The EU is the financial engine behind this scheme and they classified palm oil farms as tropical forests.
    Richard Branson decided to fly his entire fleet on palm oil and they managed to box the process.

    This means there is almost no way to stop this.
    EU law now presides over National Law so no individual EU country is able to influence the lunatic decisions of our EU apparatchniks.

    Maybe someone could [-snip].

    In Germany massive amounts of palm oil are now burned to generate electricity.

    Mind you, this is palm oil from Indonesia so you tell me what CO2 reduction gains are made to burn this oil here.

    At the same time a massive amount of shale gas has been detected, the most abundent and cheap fuel available but the exploration is suppressed by the same EU.

    We have to force a break through and get the obligatory bio fuel laws
    scrapped ASAP.

    I wouldn’t mind if the entire EU simply collapsed.

    It’s more and more taking the shape of the Evil Empire and I am very sure that if the people knew what’s going on there would be a revolution.

  6. Beano

    More Lunacy. Now chocolate production -through cocoa planting is in jeopardy

    Farmers turning to a better cash crop – palm oil

    http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/chocolate-worth-its-weight-in-gold-2127874.html

  7. R. de Haan

    Wind mills and solar power are bad projects as well but very effective if your aim is to bankrupt the countries.
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/solarpower/8116609/Solar-mania-will-cast-a-shadow-over-Britain.html

  8. DirkH

    “Es braut sich was zusammen” – something’s brewing; an FTD writer recognizes the anti-freedom core values of the German Greens.

    http://www.ftd.de/politik/deutschland/:kolumne-horst-von-buttlar-der-gruene-grossangriff/50191925.html

    It was high time.

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