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 Monday July 10, 2006 02:20 by Bristol Indymedia Editorial Group - Bristol Indymedia
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Crash writes: Last week an awards ceremony was held in London to hand out gongs to those promoting renewables. Rolling out the red carpet for the stars (Bill Oddie), the British Renewable Energy Association proceeded to announce that British Renewable Energy Pioneer of the year was Somerset Biofuels Project -- a joint venture between Somerset County Council's transport chiefs and Ford Motor Company. If that unholy alliance sets alarm bells ringing, it's with good reason. Local government in Somerset hasn't exactly been known as at the forefront of climate science and energy policy (having recently refused a wind farm at Hinkley Point on the grounds that a rotor blade could come loose and hit the nearby nuclear power station). So it will come as no surprise to learn of a study by the University of Cornell that, biofuels require more fossil fuel energy to produce than they save. For example, producing 1 barrel of bioethanol from switch grass requires 1.57 barrels of fossil fuel to be used, in the form of fertilisers, pesticides, refining and so on.
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