Wishful Thinking?

Bioenergy, Key to the Fight Against Hunger. The use of biomass is a good idea up to a point. However, read the article. We are going back to charcole and wood, growing more crops to make biofuel. Let's see, that means that we are going to plant and cut down trees and then use them as fuel, with nastier pollutants than oil. We are going to put more land into crop production to make fuel?

Guess I missed the point where we don't want to use trees for building, paper production and other human-useful things because we cut down forests and harm wildlife, but it is ok to do the same thing to replace oil? We are complaining about the amount of land removed from nature for food production but it is ok to use even more to produce an oil replacement? Guess I'm not mentally facile enough to see the difference.

I also read about a great new environmental idea of using sludge as a fuel for cement production in Baltimore. Seems that every time I hear about burning sludge, it is because the enviros are out protesting it and terrifying me with heavy metal stories. The fuel could be more expensive than the fuel it replaces by the time all the environmental controls are in place.

I'm all for using biomass as an alternate fuel. It has the advantage of reducing the amount of stuff we stick into the ground. It does reduce the amount of petroleum and coal fuels we use. However, biomass will never be the be-all and end-all to traditional fuels.