Bush Signs Huge Energy Bill

(NEWSER) - President Obama's cap-and-trade energy plan is actually a "cap-and-tax" plan that is an "enormous threat to our economy," Sarah Palin writes in the Washington Post. In an op-ed piece she predicts will disappoint "the chattering class," who prefer "personality-driven political gossip," she says fighting this bill will be a priority for her. We need energy policy reform, she says. "But the answer doesn't lie in making energy scarcer and more expensive!" More»

From sawdust to agricultural waste, scientists drive toward new fuels

(NEWSER) - After decades of dreaming, schemes to turn waste into fuel are finally getting traction in the US, with some 28 plants in the works and a handful even up and running, the New York Times reports. They consume everything from wood chips to garbage, as once-prohibitively expensive processes become competitive with $4-a-gallon gasoline. “American innovation is going to come up with the solution,” one researcher tells the Times. More»

Land likely to be used for production is already helping absorb carbon

(NEWSER) - Biofuels could hurt Earth more than help it, two new studies conclude. Over 30 years, argues one, corn-based ethanol would spout twice the greenhouse gas of regular gasoline; the other notes environmental damage likely to be wreaked by chopping rainforests and other areas for production, the Washington Post reports. The findings question international focus on using biofuel to combat climate change. More»

'Gold rush' fades as biofuel prices plummet

(NEWSER) - A glut of ethanol has sent prices plumetting, staggering the hopes of farmers and businesses who once counted on a biofuel gold rush, reports the New York Times. Companies and farm cooperatives built so many ethanol distilleries that production has far outpaced demand, in part because distribution hasn't kept up. More»

How biofuel steals from the hungry and hurts the environment

(NEWSER) - Far from the solution to America’s energy crisis, corn ethanol is “one if the great political boondoggles of our time,” Rolling Stone says in a scathing broadside. The “dangerous” and “delusional” hype over the corn biofuel raises the price of food for the needy because it puts corn to work powering SUVs. And on top of that, ethanol isn’t even environmentally efficient. More»