Biofuels are but blip in energy crisis

“Peak oil” is the point where mankind has used half of the world’s petroleum. Ken Deffeyes, professor emeritus of geology at Princeton University, believes that this occurred in December 2005.

Some people say that at the present rate of consumption, the world will be depleted of petroleum in about 35 years. There are many alternative energies that are discussed to replace petroleum, but we need to be very careful before we adopt them. We should, as the Hippocratic oath says, prescribe regimens only for the good and never do harm.


We need to be careful that we don’t invest in energy sinks. An energy sink is something that consumes more energy than it produces. Biodiesel is an example of this.

American agribusiness uses petroleum inputs petrochemicals for the fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, and fuel to cultivate the crops and to bring them to market for the production of agricultural products. Thus, the cultivation of oil seed for the manufacture of biodiesel is the application of the first law of thermodynamics: Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, but it can change from one form to another.

The Columbian (Washington)