Greens oppose ethanol production

The Ontario Green Party, that is. Federally, we're still touting ethanol. As I noted before, the current version of Vision Green says:

A Green Government will provide continued R&D to develop cellulosic ethanol from farm and forest wastes, rather than ethanol from crops grown directly for this purpose. It will establish a 10% ethanol and 10% biodiesel standard by 2010 (as Liberals), phasing this up to 100% cellulosic ethanol and biodiesel by 2040, thereby eliminate the use of oil.

Not good enough. We cannot endorse non-cellulosic ethanol. Full stop. Not as a stop gap until 2040. Not ever.

Human beings are starving. Food riots are destabilizing poor countries all over the world. In Haiti, they're eating mud pies just to survive.

In Ontario, Premier McGuinty is turning a blind eye to the suffering and the security threats posed by food shortages and high prices. He's claiming that our subsidization and legally mandated ethanol use are not dominant factors in the food crisis.

Once again, I'm urging that we reconsider any support for biofuels and that we get busy on revising Vision Green to eliminate any support for ethanol or biodiesel from food crops -- temporary or otherwise. A competition is being set up between a magic bullet that allows western civilization to continue its wastefulness and millions of starving people. We cannot afford to be on the wrong side of that competition -- politically or morally.