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Friday, July 4, 2008 12:00 AM

A biofuel food-price bombshell

The U.K. Guardian reports some astonishing numbers from a "confidential" World Bank study on energy crops and grain prices.

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  • Thursday, July 3, 2008 08:35 PM

    We'd be a lot better off...

    ... investing in public transit, pedestrian infrastructure, and bike lanes than in biofuels.

    But biofuels are sexy. They give the illusion that we can keep on driving our individual private cars into the future.

    Public transit, pedestrian crossings, and bike lanes are boring. They also mean getting out of the beloved car, even if it's small, even if it's a hybrid, even if it plugs into the wall.

    So what if the feds took those biofuel subsidies and poured them into transit agencies large and small? What if they helped towns without transit form bus systems? What if they helped do boring ordinary things like build park and ride garages across the suburbs so people could more easily take the bus? But again, parking garages are boring.

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