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Biofueling the future

By Kenneth Barbalace
[Monday, February 11, 2008]
Whatever their motivation - be it energy independence for the U.S. or an attempt at fighting climate change for Europe - world governments are now heavily subsidizing biofuels. U.S. President George Bush pledged up to $150 million for work on cellulosic ethanol in his 2006 State of the Union address, and as recently as March 2007 he visited Columbia to convince the Brazilian and Columbian governments to become the "green fuel" centres of the world.

Biofuels, or fuels derived from living matter, however, are nothing new. Rudolph Diesel unveiled the first generation biodiesel-fueled engine which ran on peanut oil in 1898 at the World Exhibition in Paris, and Henry Ford intended his 1908 Model T to run on ethanol.... Read entire article

1 comments:

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Sylvawood said...

I can't believe nobody has commented on this article. Why aren't we dancing in the streets about bio-fuels? Every year foresters leave vast quantities of waste on the harvested forest floor and timber mills dispose of unusable slab wood. Some of that now goes to heat homes through use of firewood and manufacture of sawdust pellets, but the bulk is waste. The environmental benefit of using trees that grow on otherwise unusable land must surely be exciting news for more than environmentalists.

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