Leaders Realizing the Biofuels Mess We're In?

UK newspaper The Guardian is reporting (here) that Britain's Chancellor Darling has awoken to the dire consequences of expanding biofuels development...

'This is an urgent problem,' said Darling, who was speaking in Washington at a meeting of G7 leaders. 'People across the world will say, "Why didn't you see this coming?" when it is staring us in the face. We have got to take action.'

He added: 'It would be a profound mistake if we get into a situation where we are growing corn that is essential for feeding people and converting it into fuel. That is not sustainable.'

The move to re-examine links between food shortages and global biofuel policies comes as riots have gripped many of the world's poorest nations. Demonstrators have protested, with increasing violence, about the soaring prices of wheat, rice, soya and other staples.

As the article goes on to point out, the US is currently in a political cycle where biofuels are seen as an important part of the climate change solution, pushed even recently by senators with a strong interest in averting climate change. These include US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Chairman Baraba Boxer and both Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama (policy sheet) and Hillary Clinton (policy sheet).

So US part of the solution to the biofuels problem might also give us a real indication of which candidate is likely to be the most effective on climate change. Namely, which presidential hopeful will wake up and address the environmental disaster that is biofuels first? Or will Barbara Boxer and the senate committee she chairs be the first to come around? Will any American political leader be smart or strong enough to change their position on biofuels?

Who is Chancellor Darling?
The position of Chancellor of the Exchequer (or Chancellor for short) in the UK is equivalent to the US Secretary of the Treasury, overseeing HM Treasury with responsibilities for all economic and financial matters in the UK. Alistair Darling was appointed to the post in June 2007 and has had a rough start, bailing out Northern Rock just three months later, and then dealing with the child benefit data scandal less than one month after that. Suffice it to say, he has not been a hugely popular figure, so his awakening on biofuels may be the first positive thing many have heard from him since he became Chancellor. Hopefully he can follow through.

Is Congress Finally Ready to Go Green?

As concern over global warming became more and more prominent in the U.S. over the past several years — in the media, in opinion polls, in business and in state governments — the one place where the issue seemed all but invisible was the one place that could really do something about it: Congress.

But that began to change in 2007, and nowhere more so than in the Senate's key committee on the environment and public works, which drafts much of the country's environmental legislation. Up until last January, the committee was chaired by Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, a Republican who memorably called global warming "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people." When the Democrats took over Congress in the 2006 midterm elections, however, the chairperson's gavel was handed over to Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, and the floodgates opened.

Boxer began a series of open hearings on the science of global warming, giving airtime to the sort of experts — including former Vice President Al Gore — who had been suppressed under Inhofe. "As soon as the change took place, I realized that this was going to be one of my number one goals," says Boxer. "Elections have consequences, and this was one of the consequences."

Click here to read the rest of this Time.com article