In “Harsh realities impinge on early promise,” Financial Times writers Ed Crooks and Fiona Harvey conclude that the “biofuel revolution is still years away.” Among their salient observations:

• The first-generation biofuels, grain ethanol and biodiesel, are costly, often of questionable environmental merit, and cannot replace more than a fraction of world demand for oil.
• Second-generation biofuels, such as cellulosic ethanol made from plant waste, are still years from commercial production.
• Input prices for feedstock such has corn have increased sharply, leading to much smaller profit margins for biofuels companies and problems with obtaining supply.
• Total carbon dioxide emissions from corn ethanol are probably only slightly less than those from gasoline.
• Biodiesel produced from palm oil plantations in Indonesia may result in a net increase in emissions compared to traditional diesel, because rain forests, which store carbon, are burned to make room for the plantations.
• Opening up U.S. and EU markets to cheaper, greener Brazilian cane ethanol would lower biofuel cost and environmental impact, but free trade is opposed by US and EU biofuel producers.