We've talked before about the environmental impact associated with biofuel production, an issue that tends to get glossed over in the rush to promote "renewable" energy sources.
An article that appeared in today's Wall St. Journal, "Alternative-energy boom roils Asian environments", examines the drawbacks of unsustainable palm oil production. An excerpt:
Investors are pouring billions of dollars into "renewable" energy sources such as ethanol, biodiesel and solar power that promise to reduce the world's reliance on petroleum. But exploiting these alternatives may produce unintended environmental and economic consequences -- fallout that could offset many of the expected benefits.
Here on the island of Borneo, a thick haze often encloses this city of 500,000 people. The cause: forest fires that have blazed across the island, some of which were set to clear land to produce palm oil -- a key ingredient in biodiesel, a clean-burning diesel fuel alternative.
Search this blog for more on information on this topic. Suggested search terms: "ethanol", "biofuel", "alternative energy".
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
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2 comments:
This article doesn't add much to your post but it does deal with biodiesel and a company named "Fry-o-Diesel".
www.npr.org
/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6585629
Thanks for the link. Nothing wrong with reusing fast food grease as biodiesel. I think it's a great idea and more people have been taking advantage of it.
But I have to wonder why most stories on the subject fail to focus on the fact that only so many cars can be supplied with fast food biodiesel.
The NPR story at least touched on that point with the remarks from David Pimental.
Also, interesting to hear that the
"Fry-o-Diesel" people did not want to detail the process of turning grease into diesel. Why? Makes me wonder what they have to add to it?
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