About the only positive thing I can come up with in response to this is that increasing demand might spur investment and innovation, which in turn might lead to the development of a biofuels industry that:
- doesn't compete directly with food production
- doesn't encourage deforestation and land degradation
- doesn't increase the already massive stress on our waterways
- doesn't require fossil fuel input for fertilisers and machinery
- has a chance of producing more than a couple of percent of our transport fuel requirements
2 comments:
There's another problem with introducing ethanol - even at the two percent mark - into all petrol sources: rubber components. Older cars with older fuel delivery components (carburettors for a start) start to see major problems when ethanol is introduced into the fuel line, because rubber perishes: this in turn results in higher fuel consumption and eventually engine failure.
Replacing these components costs yet more in terms of resources.
Iain - or you could look at it as a sneaky strategy to get those old gas-guzzlers off the road and recycle them ;-)
In the overall sense that would seem like a positive outcome though I would rather that the owners of such vehicles would choose to take them off the road instead of being forced to... one way or another.
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