Big props to the person who pointed me to the How Green Are Biofuels? Comparison Chart

The chart was created jointly by faculty members from University of Washington and The Nature Conservancy and published in the Seattle P-I (see the article Bio-debatable: Food vs. fuel).

Most interesting is not just how horrible the rating of corn-based solutions, but also the fact that wood residue is listed whereas oil waste is not. I have a really hard time understanding why waste oil (e.g. cooking oil from all the restaurants) is never factored into these discussions, especially since a vast majority of biodiesel production systems in place today use exactly that source.

Anyway, here’s the full chart in all it’s beauty.

I am starting to dislike corn more and more every day. How in the world did America get so dominated by the corn industry? There must be a book on this somewhere.

Coke in every other country in the world has sugar, but not in America…here we have to imbibe the disgusting corn syrup. So perhaps fuel will go the same way? While the rest of the world will develop sensible and safe ingredients for power (engines and bodies), the US corn industry will continue to monopolize and distort the discussion at home.

Real biofuel sources are not a trade-off with food. End of story.