Industrial Agrofuels Have No Future; Does Food?

The E.U. has set absurdly high targets for agrofuels in its transportation fuel mix. By 2020, the E.U. intends to sate 10 percent of its transportation demand with agrofuels, and it is counting on cellulosic ethanol for most of that new fuel.

It won
This is clearly not the case. The positive energy return proposition assumes that fossil fuels alone are the limiting factor in the production of an agrofuel, and that all other factors are limitless, and therefore irrelevant. In particular, it is assumed that:

1. The Earth provides us with an infinite and instantaneous supply of pure air, fertile soil, and clean, nutrient-rich water.
2. Nature can purify all the water and air we pollute, and regenerate all the soil we erode or otherwise destroy.
3. Mother Earth can feed 7 to 12 billion people, 1 billion cows and all other non-human consumers of plant and animal matter indefinitely.
4. She can also indefinitely feed 1 billion cars and trucks (620 million produced since 1961).

These assumptions were shown to be false by the early 19th century scientists; therefore, a proposition based on them is also false and must be rejected. Interestingly, many 21st century economists still live on an infinite Earth, truly believing that her resources are limitless.

Energy Tribune