WATCHING THE WORLD: Biofuels begin to feel the heat

April 28, 2008
The oil and gas industry is not alone in taking heat from environmentalists these days.

The oil and gas industry is not alone in taking heat from environmentalists these days. Even biofuels—long thought to be the answer to hydrocarbons—have come in for criticism.

A recent United Nations report called biofuels a “crime against humanity” for diverting food crops toward fuel production as a global scarcity deepens and food prices rise.

The UN report said farmers worldwide must reduce dependency on fossil fuels and better protect the environment, as riots erupt over food shortages in the Caribbean and Africa and hunger approaches a crisis in parts of Asia.

It even recommended an international moratorium on incentives for producing and marketing biofuels.

Thilo Bode, the head of German consumer protection group Foodwatch, also lashed out against the “lethal” trade policies of industrialized countries. “We need a different energy policy,” Bode said. “It is not right that we fill our tanks at the expense of those who are famished.”

Food, not fuel

Senior executives from BP PLC on Apr. 17 affirmed that biofuels have a role in the energy mix, but they also agreed that such energy sources must not compete with food crops or be environmentally destructive.

“Biotechnology will play a pivotal role in improving environmental sustainability,” BP Chairman Peter Sutherland said at the company’s annual general meeting in London. “But it has to be conducted in a manner that does not disrupt food supply chains...and is not damaging the environmental sustainability of agricultural land.”

Chief Executive Tony Hayward said BP will focus on “the next generation of biofuels, which will be based on more efficient molecules and will not be derived from food crops.”

US Energy Sec. Samuel Bodman took a similar view, saying the nation should begin “moving away gradually” from ethanol made from food such as corn.

“As we pursue diversity in our overall energy mix, we must also pursue diversity in our biofuels,” Bodman said at a conference in Alexandria, Va.

Lula backs biofuels

Perhaps the stoutest response came from Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who Apr. 16 made an impassioned defense of biofuels, denying that their production contributes to food scarcity or rising prices.

“Biofuels aren’t the villain that threatens food security,” he said at a Latin American meeting of the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization. “On the contrary...they can pull countries out of energy dependency without affecting foods.”

He would say that, wouldn’t he? After all, Brazil is the world’s leading exporter of ethanol, and the world’s No. 2 producer after the US.

There are, of course, those people who object even to biofuels developed from sugar cane. They say that more and more land that could be used for edible crops is being turned over to sugar cane. They may be right. But for most people right now, the Brazilian solution seems the sweetest choice in alternative fuels.