And thank you for the link to the Biodiesel Reality Check Site.

Importing foreign vegetable oil does reduce the nation's dependency on foreign petroleum oil -- through diversification of sources -- though that is not enough of a reason to subsidize biodiesel to the tune of $1.00/gallon (actually, $1.10 per gallon, since most plants also qualify for the $0.10/gallon Small Biodiesel Producer Credit as well).

Moreover, as we have both emphasized, there is always the problem of spacial and temporal displacement, even if the oil consumed to make biodiesel is itself produced sustainably.

BioD, in answer to your question:

[W]hat if, in the future we are importing all the biofuel South America can grow and become dependent on it as we have with Middle Eastern oil?

First of all, it ain't going to happen. Pressure on supplies have already driven prices for vegetable oils upwards (in dollar terms: soybean oil by 1/3 over the last year, palm oil by almost 50% since 2005), which makes the manufacturing of biodiesel from virgin oils less profitable. It is never going to make a big dent in U.S. transport fuel supplies. The EU, which uses much more diesel than the USA for transport, will have to struggle to meet its own biodiesel targets.

In any case, vegetable oils, while they differ in the properties they contribute to biodiesel, are fungible. If you were to express your worries about being too dependent on Latin American plant oils to a development economist from that continent they would burst out in a guffaw. The United States has long been highly dependent on coffee imported from Latin America (and imagine the consequences of a disruption in THAT supply). The price consumers pay is certainly affected by the vagaries of the weather and of crop yields, but when was the last time you recall a producer boycott of sales of coffee to the USA?

Production of crops involves many more people than production of petroleum. For that reason alone, exporters of agricultural commodities are not likely to withhold supplies from the market for long.

When U.S. economists look at South America, Southeast Asia, or Africa as a potential source of biodiesel -- or other biofuel -- and calculate whether there is enough to ensure the U.S. economy continues growing, do they subtract the fuel those nations will be consuming to run their own economies?

It seems to me that once petroleum is depeleted to an essentially useless level, every nation will be working very hard just to meet its own needs... no surplus for export. And if you can't grow your own biofuel or burn coal you are screwed.

Forward!

That will shift this whole debate.  Paralell hybrids like the toyota and honda models do not save signifigantly greater  amounts of fuel or gHGs compared to very efficient diesel vehicles.

The Audobon society missed this nuance as do most organizations and individuals.

Plugin hybrids like the gM volt will run on a small fraction of the fuel and produce a small fraction of the gHGs of either biodiesel or regular hybrids.

The best approach now is to do all we can to lobby the pols to back GMs play with government vehicle fleet orders.  Put that pie-in-the-sky 2050 goal-playing into reality.

Order up some gM Volts for government use and boost uS jobs along with it.  That's vote getting policy.

As for fuel farming biodiesel?  Is everyone backing biodiesel insane?  Have they never heard of rainforests slashed and burned to produce biodiesel?  Evidently not.

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But if cost is really such a big concern for ya you could just as easily buy a smaller/lightweight car which is inherently effecient.

Ford Focus or Scion xA/xB for instance.

I want to power the backup generator for my future plugin serial hybrid with biodiesel from cooking grease.  There is plenty of it around here.

I would also like to make it from a solar collector algae system.  And eventually switch from diesel/biogas backup generator to solid oxide fuel cell/microturbine backup generator.

They run on biodiesel, biogas, gasoline, or diesel.  At three times the ICE generator efficiency.

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