Dutch consider tough biofuels criteria

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – It’s the new climate change dilemma: finding alternatives for oil and gas without doing more harm than good.

In the rush to develop biofuels, forests are burned in Asia to clear land for palm oil, and swaths of the Amazon are stripped of diverse vegetation for soya and sugar plantations for ethanol.


On Friday, a Dutch committee will unveil stringent criteria for growing biofuels in ways that don’t damage the environment or release more greenhouse gases than they save.

Other European countries are working along similar lines and closely watching the Dutch initiative