Fools of the Earth

Friends of the Earth 2004 

The Government should introduce a Biofuels Obligation, to stimulate a UK biofuels industry - as a lower carbon alternative to conventional transport fuels. The obligation would require that a proportion of all road transport fuels in the UK should be sourced from accredited renewable sources.

 Friends of the Earth 2008

Friends of the Earth hopes that the Government will now put the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation on hold and demand a moratorium on EU biofuel targets. The real solution to Europe's rising transport emissions is better public transport, more provision for cyclists and higher standards for fuel efficiency in new cars

 Chaps, has it occurred to you that you might do less harm if you just, you know, shut up?

Comments

[Travis Bickle]

These clowns come up with an idea, throw their toys out of the pram in lobbying for it, then realise the implications and it's always somebody else's fault. At least they've realised that the destruction of rainforests, with resulting "carbon footprint" far in excess of all worldwide aviation year on year and loss of animal inhabitat in the name of these biofuels is too high a price to pay for them to feel smug about themselves, shame the EU and Richard Branson haven't got the message......

[mamapajamas]

Oh, there's a lot more to it than just rainforests!

In the US, over the past few years the price of feed corn has quadrupled, and those ag industries raising farm animals are strapped to hold the line on their own output prices... the prices of beef, milk, cheese, chicken, and eggs have doubled. And it's all about farmers switching from other types of corn to "enthanol" corn because our government is subsidizing a higher price for ethanol corn!

[Robin]

http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/cleaner_cars_fuels.pdf

It seems that they had a decent grasp on biofuels in 2000, but then managed to lose it by 2004...

Judging by that I can imagine that there was strife within Friends of the Earth regarding their official stance a few years ago. If whoever wrote that 2000 briefing was still there in 2004, they would have going mad...