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With fossil fuel getting scrimpy and prices of crude oil trading
beyond $120 per barrel, governments have been pushing to replace a
part of the current fuel mix with biofuels, essentially with ethanol
and biodiesel, as an alternative.
Biofuel is any fuel derived from organic matter,
most commonly from photosynthetic plants that capture solar energy.
Unlike fossil fuel, which is derived from dead biological materials
of long ago, or nuclear fuels, biofuel is renewable.
The process of creating biofuel as liquid fuel
for transportation involves growing crops such as sugar and corn and
using yeast fermentation to produce ethanol, or growing plants that
naturally produce oil such as jathropa, palm or soybean which when
processed chemically creates biodiesel.
Biofuels are regarded by many experts as
environment friendly, a more affordable energy source and
economically sustaining particularly to farmers.
The Philippines is among the many countries in
the world that support and promote biofuels as an alternative source
of energy. It is for this reason that the Biofuels Law was
fast-tracked on May 6 a year ago.
They say the Philippines was the first country
to legislate on the use of biofuel blends within its borders with
the enactment of the Biofuels Law (Republic Act No. 9367). The law
mandates all liquid fuels for motors and engines sold in the country
should contain locally sourced biofuel components in order to reduce
reliance from imported oil by providing certain incentives and
punishments.
To avoid a potential clash with the issue
affecting food security, the Department of Agriculture said that
biodiesel would be produced from coconut, which is neither a food
staple nor a major ingredient for animal feeds while bioethanol will
not be sourced from sugar cane supplies destined for food and
beverage application.
Right after Labor Day, BBC News reported that
Belgian international law professor and special rapporteur on the
right to food of the United Nations, Olivier de Schutter, urged a
freeze on biofuel investment calling the blind pursuit of the policy
as “irresponsible.” He said that the program drives food prices
higher, threatening 100 million of the world’s poorest. His
predecessor, Jean Ziegler, had condemned biofuels as a “crime
against humanity” and called for an immediate ban on their use.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Rajendra Pachauri, a
climate change scientist, cautioned the world in developing biofuels
because of its perverse effects on the environment and higher food
prices. Some environmentalists also blame biofuel programs for
distorted government budgets and much of the deforestation in
Southeast Asia and Brazil. Some scientists also claim that some
types of biofuel generate as much carbon dioxide as the fossil fuels
they replace.
In his article for Time magazine entitled:
“The Clean Energy Scam,” Michael Grunwald reported that “new
studies show the biofuel boom is doing exactly the opposite of what
its proponents intended: it’s dramatically accelerating global
warming, imperiling the planet in the name of saving it. Corn
ethanol, always environmentally suspect, turns out to be
environmentally disastrous . . . Meanwhile, by diverting grain and
oilseed crops from dinner plates to fuel tanks, biofuels are jacking
up world food prices and endangering the hungry. The grain it takes
to fill an SUV tank with ethanol could feed a person for a year.
Harvests are being plucked to fuel our cars instead of ourselves.”
With the unabated price of fossil fuel in the
international market, there is definitely a need to shift to
alternative sources of energy. The world obviously needs oil as much
as it needs food and needs to protect the environment.
It cannot be said that the use of biofuels is
all that good. But it cannot be said also that it is all that bad.
Whether it would bear either pernicious or beneficial consequences
would heavily depend on how the political management of every nation
could strike the balance in terms of state policies.
Like money, biofuels need not be the source of
all evil.
www.soriano-ph.com
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