[rant ON]

My concerns are specific to the cellulostic ethanol gambit.

Most specifically, to the casual labelling (marketing?) of agricultural biomass as "waste." Waste, to the urban ear equals garbage, trash, the smelly and gross stuff that magically disappears when you put it in the bins. Gracious heavens, if you can turn "waste" into fuel for your car, to maintain your existing lifestyle, that's obviously wise; why would you hesitate?

Well, it doesn't work that way. The "waste" produced on farmers' fields needs to be incorporated back into the soil to maintain any semblance of a sustainable soil ecosystem. And even then, it's hardly enough. There is no free lunch: outputs require inputs. Otherwise, you are mining the soil.

Though I confess I haven't looked at it closely, I find it extremely hard to believe that the miracle biomass plants such as switchgrass can be harvested en masse without consequences -- or external chemical inputs. The laws of physics, and the laws of soil, altogether inconvenient, continue to apply.

-Doug, who grew up on a mixed farm and knows a little about the maintenance of soil fertility

[rant OFF]