GasHole: Dirty Oil and the Biofuel Myth

This week marked the world premiere of GasHole, a new documentary film (narrated by Peter Gallagher) about the history of oil prices and the future of alternative fuels.

Biofuel gossip has been everywhere in the news lately. Bolivian President, Evo Morales, condemned the use of valuable farming land for ethanol at the recent U.N. summit, and Roger Cohen pleaded for a moment of sanity, suggesting in his New York Times op-ed that it may be foolish to universally condemn biofuels.

Depending on who you talk to, or whose column you read, biofuels are either the savior of humanity, or the worst thing to ever happen, ever. Some people think the farmed corn should be given to starving people. Others believe it should be used as fuel before global warming really accelerates and we're drowned by the sea. The truth is that food is definitely unaffordable for the poorest among us, but biofuels aren't entirely to blame.

Yes, certain biofuels like sugarcane are more efficient and do less environmental damage than corn ethanol, but sugarcane crops have not received the same kind of monetary love from the government as corn. If a big, fat, moneybag-carrying Congressman shows up at your farm and says he'll pay you to grow corn, or kick you in the ass if you grow sugarcane, which are you likely to grow? Hm...

GasHole co-directors Jeremy Wagener and Scott D. Roberts took time out from their nationwide tour to explain the bad wrap biofuels has received as of late. I first asked them about the Time Magazine cover story" "The Clean Energy Scam", in which Michael Grunwald writes, "using land to grow fuel leads to the destruction of forests, wetlands, and grasslands that store huge amount of carbon."