Wednesday, April 18, 2007

trees, not just for firewood anymore

Project looks at trees for biofuel
Forest-product companies have gotten pretty good over the years at squeezing as much lumber, paper pulp and chemicals out of their trees as they can. Now they're hoping to squeeze one more useful product out of the trees and the lands they're grown on -- transportation fuel.
Federal Way-based Weyerhaeuser Co. said Thursday that it has signed an agreement with petroleum giant Chevron Corp. to study commercial production of biofuels from cellulose-based sources, including trees and other crops that might be grown on Weyerhaeuser lands.

I'm getting tired of making this point, but if trees become a feedstock for liquid fuel, it won't be long before our "reserves" are thinned considerably. Look what the jackasses said about corn ethanol. Wouldn't affect the price of food. Now Mexico is running out of corn tortillas - - but that's ok, right? Even funny?

So yeah, take down the trees. This is not a green solution, this is a chainsaw response to OPEC directed at our own forests. (Oh sure, first they come for the managed tree farms...)