| Experts clash over viability of biofuels, alternative energy Heather Knight August 3, 2008 Pre-eminent UC Berkeley scholars clashed Saturday over whether biofuels will help solve the energy crisis - or whether biofuel supporters are duping themselves and everybody else with empty promises. The university's College of Natural Resources hosted a panel discussion called "The Future of Biofuels?" and it became clear early on why the question mark was tacked onto the title. Biofuels are fuels derived from biological material such as corn or soybeans, and are seen by many as the answer to rising oil prices and global warming. They hold particular significance at UC Berkeley because the university recently teamed with oil giant BP to discover better biofuels and research other alternative energy sources. Tad Patzek, an outspoken critic of the biofuels industry and a geo-engineering professor who's leaving Cal to take a post at the University of Texas at Austin, said biofuels are vastly overhyped. He asked the members of the audience to imagine themselves as proponents of the notion that 2+2=22, rather than 4. "That would make you biofuel enthusiasts," he said to laughter. "You have money and media access, and now everybody believes that 2+2=22." He said world production of staples - including wheat, rice, barley, potatoes and rye - is not keeping up with population growth. Instead, farmers are growing such crops as corn, sugarcane, soybeans and others that can be used to make biofuels. This means there is less food for people, which has contributed to the recent dramatic rise in food prices, he said. That imbalance between crops for food and crops for fuel stands to get even bigger, he predicted. Patzek said it would take food for 36 billion people - or six times the population of the Earth - to make enough ethanol to power the cars of every American. "Call me cold-shower Tad," he said. "You have to start using less energy." Chris Somerville heads the university's new Energy Biosciences Institute, funded with $500 million from BP. He stressed that the institute isn't focusing on turning corn into ethanol or soybeans into biodiesel. Instead, it is looking at "cellulosic biofuels," which break down cell fibers so any plant material - including grass trimmings, food waste, fallen trees and fast-growing plants such as miscanthus - can be made into biofuel. Somerville said all the world's transportation fuel needs could be met by plants growing on just 1 percent of the Earth's surface, and he said there's plenty of abandoned farmland to make that feasible. He said the strategy would also substantially reduce greenhouse gases. "We're not advocating anything," he said. "We're advocating research on the subject. We're not picking winners." J. Keith Gilless, dean of the College of Natural Resources, moderated the event, which also included Doug Dickson, vice president of ag products at Pacific Ethanol Inc., and Anastasios Melis, professor of plant and microbial biology at UC Berkeley. Gilless said the future of biofuels depends a lot on choices: whether consumers will switch to new kinds of cars, whether fuel sellers will adopt new pumps and storage, and whether farmers will grow crops for food or biofuels. There are costs and benefits to all these decisions, he said. [Read More] |
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