Holy moly. The biofuels thing is starting to look like the biodiversity crisis thing. An unstoppable conversion of the natural world into short term profit and personal gain. How very human of us.

In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

"Cellulosic ethanol for instance just sounds like a convenient excuse for the Forest Service to chew up some trees."

Exactly, Greyflcn.

Cellulosic ethanol is also good for some university researchers working on government and industry grants.

See the reports below from 'Alternative Fuel'and the University of Florida Alumni Magazine.

UF Ethanol Expert Meets With President
http://domesticfuel.com/?p=1586

UF TODAY - Alumni Magazine
Energy Could Grow on Trees
In the next few yrs, you could find yourself filling your gas tank with ethanol derived from specially bred black cottonwood trees---and at fuel prices not seen since the 1990's.

Researchers from UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, in conjunction w/33 scientific institutions worldwide, have mapped out the genome of the black cottonwood tree, a prime candidate for use in new biomass fuel production methods that could someday cut out reliance on petroleum and reduce pollution.

The research identifies genes that can be specifically selected through traditional plant breeding to produce trees w/the perfect qualities for efficient conversion into biomass fuel.

"Basically, you would have a fuel source for our cars that, in the big picture, could help capture almost as much carbon dioxide as it produces,"says Gary Peter, Assoc. Prof. of forest genomics.  "that would go a long way in slowing the biggest driver of global warming."
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I visited Florida Secretary of Agriculture Charles 'Farm to Fuel' Bronson in his Tallahassee office on Monday to discuss biofuels.

Bronson seems to have backed off a bit on corn ethanol but is wildly enthusiastic about tree ethanol.  He said there were no scientific studies against it even as I was handing them to him.

Georgia, with its' huge pine plantations, faces the same threat.  See below.

Karen Orr
Florida

Georgia's pine country could be the "Biofuels Saudi Arabia of the South" according to Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue.

See 'Biofuel Push May Take Root in Georgia' in the St. Pete Times
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/02/08/Worldandnation/Biofuel_ ...

Lonely voices crying in the wilderness at 'Stop GE Trees Campaign'
http://www.stopgetrees.org/

Well, not wild perhaps, but crazy.

BP, the folks who neglected pipelines in Alaska until they leaked all over the wilderness they said they would protect, has just signed a half-billion dollar deal with what is supposed to be a public university featuring some of the world's top, independent researchers.  The object of the deal is to allow BP to claim patents on GMOs cranked out by Berkeley researchers, who will work hand in hand and under the direction of BP researchers to create the lovely new organisms that will be turned loose as quickly as possible to meet the incredible demand for biofuels that is being projected and funded like, well, like the stupid and expensive war that took off in a hurry with lots of the same corporations making money hand over fist as a result.

And the war connection doesn't stop there.  They are modeling the whole enterprise on the Manhattan Project.  And as with the Manhattern Project, the whole affair is described in new fangled terminology so as not to tip off the public as to what is really going on until in terms they recognize.  Terms like "synthetic biology" (biotech), "biobricks" (genes), and "DNA circuits" (GMOs).  Basically, they are coopting not only a university research program, but agriculture, and, soon, water and land management, by trying to get motorists hooked on their new products before the enormous risks and costs set in--all in the name of increased energy security, of course.

Read all about it.