Heck of a thing when the Europeans are adjusting to reality and when we’re not. Then again, they’re farther down the road. Walter Russell Mead has the report:
Getting rid of biofuel programs would cut Europe’s food costs in half by 2020, and lower global food prices by 15 percent. That’s according to a new report, commissioned by the EU’s own Joint Research Center (JRC), released ahead of a critical European Parliament vote on Wednesday to cap biofuels’ contributions to the EU’s 2020 green targets.
Current EU targets have more than half of the continent’s vegetable oils going towards biodiesel production in 2020. The new paper points out that global food prices are “strongly driven” by their end use. As Euractiv puts it, “[w]hen more soy and palm oil are used for biofuels production, less is available for food use and the resulting scarcity drives food price inflation.”
Personally, I feel that religion is a fine thing: but if your religion tells you that it is a good thing to starve another man to death, find a better religion.
Moe Lane
PS: The vote went through on Wednesday, as scheduled: and the the Guardian frothed at the mouth over it. It’s great fun to read, if you go for that sort of thing.
They’re also adjusting faster to the lack of males on College Campuses. The Left in Europe has a long history of it’s ideas backfiring and having to adjust to that, the American Left has never been able to recognize when it’s bad ideas create a problem let alone attempt to clean up after itself. As Jimmie Bisse of Sundries Shack once put it they kick out the pillars supporting the roof and expect the roof to hover in the air until the next Republican President comes along and the roof crashes in on him. I don’t think O’bama is going to be that lucky.
I’ve long considered it a “sin” that food is being used for fuel…especially since we do have an abundance of “real” fuel/energy sources.
On numerous fronts Western Europeans are doing an amazing job of careening towards extinction – this may be too little, a little too late.
See also
http://realmoneypro.thestreet.com/articles/09/17/2013/cramer-renewables-religion-dangerous