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Congress prepares to soak the 2007 Farm Bill in ethanol, to the delight of agribiz.

"You can have Republicans and Democrats absolutely in lockstep agreement on certain issues in the farm bill, and it has nothing to do with parties. These issues tend to be commodity-driven," gushed USDA chief Mike Johanns.

Uh-oh. Looks like a good old-fashioned "bipartisan consensus" has formed: time to use the 2007 Farm Bill as a tool for maximizing ethanol production -- which evidently doesn't already draw enough government support.

Can U.S. corn farmers fill both bellies and tanks?

The boom in corn-based ethanol seems like good news for farmers, who suddenly face growing demand for their crop. But is there enough corn to go around? And will surging demand mean surging prices for consumers? Tom Philpott addresses the food vs. fuel debate in today's Victual Reality column, and Yolanda Crous talks to a farmer in Missouri who's an ethanol co-op board member. Also, as a wee digestif, we bring you a rundown of celebrity biofuels hitting the shelves soon. (OK, we completely made them up. What can we say -- two weeks of biofuels coverage would leave you a little punchy too.)

JibJab’s latest

The fellows at JibJab have put up their latest animation. It's a fairly apt and amusing summary of 2006, though I am surprised to see Al Gore and his movie escape mention:

Maybe, maybe not

This is why I love the Economist magazine. They take cutting edge issues and put a monkey wrench in conventional thinking.

Turns out, organic food is not always better for the environment, fair trade may actually exacerbate poverty in some circumstances, and buying local may be be less efficient than buying food shipped thousands of miles away sometimes.

Biofuel pioneer Lee Lynd points the way toward a “carbohydrate economy”

Well before cellulosic ethanol became the hot new fuel, Lee Lynd was immersed in it. Since 1987, the engineering professor has been leading a major academic study group on cellulosic ethanol from his perch at Dartmouth. Before that, he even wrote his undergraduate honors thesis on it. Lee Lynd. Photo: Joseph Mehling/Dartmouth More recently, Lynd […]

Grains become fuel at the world’s first cellulosic ethanol demo plant

Our plant supplants your plant: a real-life cellulosic ethanol refinery. Photo: Iogen Sometimes it seems virtually anything can be made into fuel. As though, if we had the right technology, we could throw together old T-shirts, bumper stickers, and pine cones to make a magical elixir to run the millions of cars on North America’s […]

The latest idea in fighting global warming

Nuclear war.

Jim Baker eyes the oil in Iraq

With the disaster unfolding in Iraq, you'd think the U.S. government might take its eyes off the oil for a moment. There are some 27 million Iraqis who might demand a higher place in our priorities.

Apparently not. It turns out Jim Baker's ISG report is chock full of recommendations about what to do with Iraq's oil. Antonia Juhasz in the L.A. Times gives us the details. Let's just say, if you thought this war had absolutely nothing to do with oil, you need to reexamine your conclusions.

You really need to ask?

The riffs on energy, climate change, and renewable energy are all the excuse I need to link to Barack Obama's remarkable speech in New Hampshire.

Biodiesel means trouble for Uganda

As reported by Reuters yesterday:

The president of Uganda asked the National Forest Authority boss to quit after he refused to license a palm oil company to destroy a pristine rainforest on an island in Lake Victoria, according to his resignation note.