Do some research and you will discover how bad biofuel is for not just the environment, but the world as a whole. Hopefully hydrogen fuel comes into it's own soon, but until then, we can only hope that engines become more efficient and that hybrids make up a larger market segment for those who drive.

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@aurispector: Assuming I drove. That said, it kills me, first of all, to see someone driving an SUV and, secondly, to see them driving with under-inflated tires.

@Révolution: Biofuel is made from biomass. Biomass is simply any organic matter. There is the technology to make biofuel from algae, switchgrass, garbage, and chaff, but most biofuels that we see being made now aren't made from such sources. In the US it is predominantly made from corn and in Brazil it is sugarcane. Thus in the world's top two producers of biofuel, both sources are from food products. The benefit of algae based biofuel is it is cheap to produce, mass amounts of it take relatively little space to grow, and eats CO2. Switchgrass grows quickly and has low energy cost vs it's output. Garbage can produce biofuel, which would aid in reducing the amount of trash put in landfills, thus recycling our garbage (along those same lines, even human fecal matter can be used to produce biofuel). Chaff has many of the same advantages of garbage.

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They just built (are building?) a facility in Georgia to use agricultural waste. Think of how great it would be if corn stalks and other agricultural waste, garbage, leaves from your trees, fecal matter, etc all went into producing biofuel. Assuming fairly efficient processes are developed, this would be a great source of power. I personally am a fan of the methane recapturing that some cattle owners are doing through anaerobic digestion. Not only do they dramatically reduce the greenhouse gases produced by cows (who are, incidentally, the number greenhouse gas producer in the world), but they also power their farm and put power back onto the grid.

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The Buch plan also called for more sources of green energy as a whole, but not much has been done there. It seems that a lot of people consider "clean" coal green energy.

There are certain plants that can be used for biofuel that don't take up much land, like switchgrass. Since it grows so fast, it doesn't need a lot of space. I wouldn't care if gas was just as expensive if it took those waste products and turned them into gas, but I do know others would.

I seriously hope algae pans out. It grows quickly, has an incredibly high energy to mass ratio, and takes up very little room. Plus, if for some reason you grow too much of it, you can eat it.

@renorydabp: Yeah, it's sad most people don't know. We pass things like the Kyoto Protocol (well, developed countries that aren't the US do, but we don't pass any legislation regarding cows. The UN has put out reports that cows are far more damaging to the environment than are cars, yet we do little to change it. That's one of the many reasons I'm vegetarian.

@-Core-: It does due to it's high oil content.

And no, you can't smoke it.

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