Biofuels do far more harm than good

The EU has imposed temporary tariffs on US biodiesel because subsidies over there distort trade - but that shouldn't be the only reason to stop the biofuels juggernaut. Biofuels are supposed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They do the opposite. Almost all of them produce more greenhouse gases than petrol (gasoline) or diesel, for two reasons: 1. emissions of nitrous oxide (a very powerful greenhouse gas) caused by the application of nitrogen fertilisers 2. the destruction of grassland, wetland and forest caused by the expansion of agriculture stimulated by this new market. Biofuels - especially biodiesel made from palm oil - also cause other kinds of environmental havoc. They are now among the major drivers of deforestation in Indonesia and Malaysia, wrecking tens of millions of hectares of primary forest and driving orang-utans and other wildlife towards extinction In the US the biofuel business is stimulated by a series of massive subsidies, running into hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
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