The "cure" is worse than the "sickness"

The federal government is pushing the use of bio fuels. The idea is that the emmissions from the use of bio fuels are less than those from fossil fuels. The idea is also that agricultural businesses can benefit from the growing of the vegetable matter used for these bio fuels.

This sounds fine, but there are some problems with the concept. I was listening to a BBC news interview with a man with biofuelwatch.org According to that organization, there are already problems in the world to support the production of bio fuels.

- There are farmers who are ditching their traditional crops to grow the vegetable crops to make bio fuels instead of food crops. If the trend continues, especially in underdeveloped nations, there will be a growing food shortage.

- As farming grows and more fertile land is needed to grow more crops, forested areas are being cut down and burned to make farmland. The deforestation makes for less trees to convert CO2 into oxygen. Also, the burning of the byproducts of deforestation yields far more emissions of greenhouse gases than can be made up by the differential between the burning of traditional fossil fuels and bio fuels.

There are a few other issues, but those stuck out to me as I listened. I find it ironic that the preparation for a "green technology" actually is worse than traditional fossil fuels and helps to destroy the sacred cow "greenie weenies", rainforests.

If all of this is true, why is Congress along with the President pushing bio fuels? There must be a money trail somewhere.