Cold shower for biofuel backers

Biofuels made from corn, palm oil and sugar cane are being counted on to replace a significant share of the fossil fuels scientists say are heating up Earth's atmosphere.

But less than a week after biofuels were touted as part of the solution to global warming in the third of three highly anticipated U.N.-sponsored reports on climate change, another U.N. report has raised alarms about their viability.

The idea of making fuel from crops is appealing, since much of the world lacks reserves of oil or other fossil fuels, said U.N.-Energy chairman Mats Karlsson at a news conference Tuesday in New York. But, he said, there may be negative effects from the use of biofuels as well.

Among those downsides: Large tracts of fuel crops could take land away from food production and increase food prices. They also could do environmental damage and even release carbon dioxide that would offset the climate advantages of burning biofuels. Said Greenpeace biofuels expert Jan van Aken: "More and more, people are realizing that there are serious environmental and serious food security issues involved in biofuels. There is more to the environment than climate change. Climate change is the most pressing issue, but you cannot fight climate change by large deforestation in Indonesia."

Some environmentalists argue that actions such as cutting down the Brazilian rain forest to grow sugar cane for fuel just don't make sense.

In the future, governments and consumers may insist on knowing where their biofuel comes from before they buy it. That could discourage production of nonsustainable biofuels, Andy Hunter said in Britain's Independent newspaper. His company, Argent Energy, makes biodiesel from tallow and used cooking oil rather than corn or sugar cane.

At a congressional hearing May 8, a spokesman for the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association raised another drawback.

Said Charlie Drevna in a statement: "Imported oil may very well have geopolitical security concerns of its own, but transferring dependency on a commodity that can be severely impacted by a number of uncontrollable events (drought, storms, heat waves, etc.) creates a new dimension of uncertainty to energy supply."