The Problem with Boutique Fuels

Ethanol and wind or solar power might be the sexy energy fads of 2007, but according to Special Report, they're not all that the activists think they are:

A noted conservation biologist and climate researcher says the increased use of renewable energy will lead to what he calls the "rape of nature."

Jesse Ausubel of the Rockefeller University in New York writes that solar, wind and biofuel sources are "boutique fuels" that look attractive on a small scale. But he says they will require vast amounts of land for large scale production. He says generating the same energy as a 1,000 megawatt nuclear reactor would take 965-square miles of prime Midwestern farm land, or 58-square miles of solar power cells.

Ausubell tells newscientist.com — "If we want to minimize the rape of nature, the best energy solution is increased efficiency, natural gas with carbon capture, and nuclear power."

Climate models upon which those dire global warming predictions are often based use statistics from a vast array of weather stations across the world. We told you some months ago about a California meteorologist who has a volunteer network that is going to these sites and often finding they are not properly set up to take accurate measurements.

Now Anthony Watts says the National Climatic Data Center has removed the addresses of the stations from its data base — even though the research is publicly funded and the information has been available for years. Watts writes on his Web site that the timing is "suspect."

Meanwhile, he's found what he writes is the worst station yet — in Tucson. This equipment is found in the middle of a parking lot — with sensors he says are not at the standard observing height. Watts says that adds a "positive bias" to the measurements.

And this doesn't even address the impact on food prices that diverting corn to ethanol production is already causing. The $15 burrito is not that far away.