OECD: No Biofuels

PARIS, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Biofuels, championed for reducing energy reliance, boosting farm revenues and helping fight climate change, may in fact hurt the environment and push up food prices, a study suggested on Tuesday. In a report on the impact of biofuels, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said biofuels may "offer a cure that is worse than the disease they seek to heal". "The current push to expand the use of biofuels is creating unsustainable tensions that will disrupt markets without generating significant environmental benefits," the OECD said. "When acidification, fertiliser use, biodiversity loss and toxicity of agricultural pesticides are taken into account, the overall environmental impacts of ethanol and biodiesel can very easily exceed those of petrol and mineral diesel," it added. The OECD therefore called on governments to cut their subsidies for the sector and instead encourage research into technologies that would avoid competing for land use with food production. "Governments should cease to create new mandates for biofuels and investigate ways to phase them out," it said.

Somewhere, someone is very unhappy.