A new article in Time Magazine Online explores what a number of us math-physics geeks have been harping on from time to time: Existing biofuel technology is not an ideal solution to our energy dilemma. There are three primary obstacles and one stubborn but irreducible consequence of our pay for play political system. 1) In our petroleum based economy where most farm machinery, processing, and distribution systems are built around petroleum, biofuels made from corn or other high end crops consume as much or more oil as they replace. 2) The former combined with the loss in photosynthetic carbon sinks because of the land cleared to grow these crops is equal or greater to the carbon savings produced by the biofuel itself. 3) There is a food shortage looming and if we really commit the kind of acreage needed to put a dent in our national energy budget it will make matters much worse. The political consequence is that those agricultural industries which stand to gain the most from biofuels, Big Corn or Big Sugar, are among the worst offenders of the three concerns outlined above. But they are the ones with the political power to lobby and divert any well meaning funds away from other ideas and into their bulging pockets, efficiencies be damned.

From DarkSyde