On the Road Again

How the world got addicted to oil, and where biofuels will take us

They may be hyped as the way of the future, but biofuels already count as a juggernaut. Supported by the government and embraced by the Big Three automakers, ethanol is surging in the United States. Biodiesel, meanwhile, is roaring ahead in Europe as the continent strives to meet its carbon-emission obligations under the Kyoto treaty.

But as we plunge headfirst into a sea of biofuel — both in the energy-hungry world and in this Grist special series — it’s worth looking back at previous energy transitions to gain insight into the current one.

Oil and the “Sea of Troubles”

During the buildup to World War I, the British Royal Navy faced a momentous decision: keep running its ships on stodgy but plentiful Welsh coal, or switch to a promising alternative fuel concentrated mainly in distant Persia (Iran).

An ambivalent British official invoked Hamlet: “To commit the Navy irrevocably to oil was indeed to ‘take arms against a sea of troubles.’” That official, a young Winston Churchill, eventually convinced the Navy to choose petroleum — the decisive moment in oil’s triumph over coal and biomass.

Grist