THE LAST WORD
George F. Will
The Biofuel Follies
To avoid drilling for oil in ANWR, the planet savers evidently prefer destroying forests that absorb greenhouse gases.
Iowa's caucuses, a source of so much turbulence, might even have helped cause the recent demonstration by 10,000 Indonesians in Jakarta. Savor the multiplying irrationalities of the government-driven mania for ethanol and other biofuels, and energy policy generally.
Indonesians, like most Asians, love soybeans, the world price of which has risen 50 percent in a month and 125 percent in a year, partly because of increasing world population and incomes, but also because many farmers have switched land from soybeans to crops that can be turned into biofuels. In 2005, America used 15 percent of its corn crop to supplant less than 2 percent of its gasoline use. In 2007, the government-contrived U.S. demand for ethanol was more than half the global increase in demand. The political importance of corn-growing, ethanol-making Iowa is one reason that biofuel mandates flow from Washington the way oil would flow from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge if it had nominating caucuses.
ANWR's 10.4 billion barrels of oil have become hostage to the planet's saviors (e.g., John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama), who block drilling in even a tiny patch of ANWR. You could fit Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Delaware into ANWR's frozen desolation; the "footprint" of the drilling operation would be one sixth the size of Washington's Dulles airport.
Clinton has an alternative to drilling: Oil should be released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve—which exists to protect the nation against major interruptions of supply—as "a signal to the market." A signal of what? Readiness to release more? All 698 million barrels? Then what?
Americans can still drill for … water. Water rights (T. Boone Pickens has bought 400,000 acres of them in the Texas Panhandle) are becoming more valuable as ethanol production, which is extremely water-intensive, puts pressure on supplies.
To avoid drilling for oil in ANWR's moonscape, the planet savers evidently prefer destroying forests, even though they absorb greenhouse gases. Will ethanol prevent more carbon-dioxide emissions than would have been absorbed by the trees cut down to clear land for the production of crops for ethanol? Be that as it may, governments mandating the use of biofuels are one reason for the global rise in food prices, which is driving demand for more arable land. That demand is driving the destruction of forests—and animal habitats. In Indonesia alone, 44 million acres have been razed to make way for production of palm oil.
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Member Comments
Posted By: catmeow @ 05/12/2008 9:13:27 PM
Comment: Utah Transit Authority needs to get Accessible Vans and Small Buses to go into neighborhoods to help Encourage People to take the Bus, to take Individuals to the Main Bus Route or Trax. Gas Prices have Sky Rocketed. UTA needs to work on Barrier Free, Benches and Shelters and also Increase the Frequency of Buses. Utah Transit Authority has good Bus Service Down Town Salt Lake City and in the Aveunes, UTA has Destroy the Bus System in the rest of Salt Lake County, so they can put more REVENUE into Light Rail and FrontRunner. John Inglish General Manager Salary is $266,614 Bonus $39,860 Other Incentives $60,526 Total $100,386, there are 9 more High Paid Exectives that receive a Huge Salaries and Huge Bonuses all at TAX PAYER EXPENSE. UTAH TRANSIT AUTHORITY has Less then Half as EFFICIENT TRANSIT SYSTEM. Google: UTA Transit Follies 5 or Utah Transit Follies 5 and also go to transitridersunion.blogstot.com for more Information. Please Help! Thank You!
Posted By: catmeow @ 05/12/2008 9:10:36 PM
Comment: Utah Transit Authority needs to get Accessible Vans and Small Buses to go into neighborhoods to help Encourage People to take the Bus, to take Individuals to the Main Bus Route or Trax. Gas Prices have Sky Rocketed. UTA needs to work on Barrier Free, Benches and Shelters and also Increase the Frequency of Buses. Utah Transit Authority has good Bus Service Down Town Salt Lake City and in the Aveunes, UTA has Destroy the Bus System in the rest of Salt Lake County, so they can put more REVENUE into Light Rail and FrontRunner. John Inglish General Manager Salary is $266,614 Bonus $39,860 Other Incentives $60,526 Total $100,386, there are 9 more High Paid Exectives that receive a Huge Salaries and Huge Bonuses all at TAX PAYER EXPENSE. UTAH TRANSIT AUTHORITY has Less then Half as EFFICIENT TRANSIT SYSTEM. Google: UTA Transit Follies 5 or Utah Transit Follies 5 and also go to transitridersunion.blogstot.com for more Information. Please Help! Thank You!
Posted By: pms888 @ 02/16/2008 5:29:21 PM
Comment: As a professor of environmental science I have to give George Will a ???D??? grade for his ???Biofuel Follies??? distortions. Although he does join the environmental community in making a strong case against the Bush Administrations surge towards Biofuels (the folly of land conversion from forest to biofuel cropland), he distorts the truth by suggesting that such folly is the environmental community???s proposal. His finger pointing in misdirected. He further distorts ecological facts by rhetorically demoting the biodiversity hotspot we call ANWR into a ???frozen???, ???desolate??? ???moonscape???. Will did not do his homework. His blind-faith acceptance of the corporate party line (hook and sinker) regarding the laughably miniscule environmental impact of fossil fuel exploration and extraction reveals his complete inability to critically evaluate the evidence and question his sources. Regrettably the most provocative component of this piece is the carte blanche provided him to write what he wants without regards to the facts.