Today in Biofuels Opinion: “If we let Brazil help us solve our problem at the price of more rainforest destruction, have we really gained anything?”
Former US President Bill Clinton: “What people are worried about Brazil is not (whether) you have the most efficient biofuel in the world… everybody knows that is true…the world would say if we let Brazil help us solve our problem at the price of more rainforest destruction, have we really gained anything? That’s what you have to answer.”
Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis: “Essentially, those who accept the ILUC theory believe that a farmer planting corn in Minnesota is somehow responsible for a tree being cut down in South America. If that sounds crazy to you, it’s because it is. What’s more, the two main concepts that serve as the foundation of the scheme have been thoroughly debunked. First, U.S. grain exports are up, not down. And, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture projections, exports for corn and soybeans are likely to remain steady or grow slightly through 2015. Second, the ILUC theory claims that producing ethanol from corn drives deforestation in the Amazon. However, data from Brazil’s National Institute of Space Research shows that even while U.S. ethanol production has dramatically increased, deforestation in the Amazon has significantly decreased.”
Free Subscription to the Daily Biofuels Digest e-newsletter
Subscribe FREE to the world's most-widely read biofuels daily. Enter your email in the box below,
Related Stories
Hot Topics
The Hottest 50 Companies in Bioenergy
Latest algae-to-energy news
Latest jatropha news
Latest Waste-to-energy news
Entry Information
Filed Under: Opinion
Comments: 2 | Post a Comment | Trackback URL
Post a Comment | Trackback URL
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Joelle Brink | Jun 3, 2009 | Reply
Bill seems a bit out of date. If he read Biofuels Digest he would be aware that Colombia is now the most efficient sugar cane to ethanol producer in the world according to the USDA, and Brazil is already seeing results from its reforestation program.
(Note to Bill’s staff: subscribe to BFD and make %$#&! sure he reads it before holding forth on biofuels again.)
It’s this kind of clueless preaching at “developing countries” that is causing them to write the US off a little more each year.
The US is now just another member of the Group of 20 developed nations on the same footing as the Brazil, India, and South Africa, the economic “Big Three” of the southern hemisphere. All have measures in place to reduce CO2 and other emissions, and all have land and forest conservation programs.
And as the Indian Government likes to point out, it’s the US that needs to sacrifice its enormously wasteful and polluting lifestyle if catastrophic climate change is to be averted.
galonga | Jun 4, 2009 | Reply
Joelle´s comments hit the nail right on the head, and I´d like to add that clinton´s talk just shows how nervous the big oil companies are on these new technologies which, btw, nobody knows why they are not getting into (money they have!), such as petrobras and BP are doing very well.