Source:
CNN.comLONDON, England (CNN) -- The world's first biofuel-powered commercial aircraft touched down in Amsterdam on Sunday following a demonstration flight from London's Heathrow Airport hailed as a first step towards "cleaner" flying.
The Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 flight was part of a joint initiative with planemaker Boeing and engine manufacturer GE Aviation to develop a "sustainable aircraft fuel." No passengers were onboard.
Virgin said the fuel to be used for Sunday's flight -- a 20 percent biofuel mix of coconut and babassu oil in one of the plane's four main fuel tanks -- was of a type that wouldn't compete with food and fresh water resources amid mounting concerns among green campaigners about the environmental impact of biofuels.
Some studies suggest that converting land for crops such as palm oil used for biofuel can generate far more in carbon emissions than the savings delivered by the fuel.
Read more:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/BUSINESS/02/24/flight.biofuels/index.html
Is there ONE freaking journalist with any reading skills left? The studies that complain about biofuel are talking about clearing jungles or wild areas to make it crop land. Not converting food production land to fuel production land. Clearing native vegitation for monoculture will reduce carbon sequestration regardless of growing plants for fuel or for food.
The topic of food vs. fuel is a completely different discussion, but the bobble headed news writters can't keep two concepts in their pea brains and lump them together.
The fact that the hyped "carbon emmissions" are actually the loss carbon sequestration by the intact forest should give a hint to its ultimate sources. There is a group of people that whine about "tax increases" that are actually the expiration of tax cuts.