Today in Biofuels Opinion: “Obama should make the meeting in Copenhagen not about bloated subsidies for inefficient technologies, but lean investments in future breakthroughs.”

Bjørn Lomborg in The Economic Times: “President-elect Obama is now facing countless people who claim that subsidies for renewable energy and CO2 taxes are great ways to tackle global warming and forge a new green economy. Unfortunately, this is almost entirely incorrect. Taxes and subsidies are always expensive, and will likely impede growth. Moreover, if we really want to tackle global warming, we shouldn’t spend vast sums of money buying inefficient green technology — we should invest directly in R&D to make future green technology competitive. Obama should seize the initiative and make the meeting in Copenhagen next year not about bloated subsidies for inefficient technologies, but about lean investments in future breakthroughs. That is the way to tackle global warming and support a genuinely vibrant economy.”

National Corn Growers Association president Bob Dickey: “These same ethanol critics are the ones who virtually promised to reduce food prices immediately, and have failed to do so, even though corn prices and energy prices are down by more than half in the last few weeks. When will their prices come down?”

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