Washington, DC (PRWEB) July 16, 2008 — The world biofuels industry today issued a sharp rebuke to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its president, Chakib Khelil, today in the pages of the Financial Times. In a full page ad, the biofuel industries of Brazil, Canada, Europe and the United States took the oil cartel to task for outrageous, misleading, and unsubstantiated claims about the role of ethanol in world oil markets. The biofuel trade associations’ ad pointed out the very real competition biofuels is proving to be for oil producers.
“Efforts to obfuscate and mislead the public about biofuels will do nothing to alleviate the energy crisis gripping the world. We realize that biofuels may be reducing your windfall profits. But, perhaps, the time for OPEC to face some competition has finally arrived,” the groups wrote.

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The world biofuels industry today (16th July) issued a sharp rebuke to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its president, Chakib Khelil, in the pages of the Financial Times. In a full page advertisement, the biofuel industries of Brazil, Canada, Europe and the United States took the oil cartel to task for what they say are outrageous, misleading, and unsubstantiated claims about the role of ethanol in world oil markets.
“Efforts to obfuscate and mislead the public about biofuels will do nothing to alleviate the energy crisis gripping the world. We realize that biofuels may be reducing your windfall profits. But, perhaps, the time for OPEC to face some competition has finally arrived,” the groups wrote.
The groups –- the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association (CRFA), the European Bioethanol Fuel Associations, the Brazilian Sugarcane and Ethanol Industry Association (UNICA) and the US Renewable Fuels Association – were answering the charges by OPEC that ethanol was in part responsible for the soaring price of crude oil, a price that will fetch OPEC nations more than $1.2 trillion dollars this year alone.

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The folks over at OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, must think we’re pretty stupid. The other day, Chakib Khelil, the current OPEC president, asserted that “the intrusion of bioethanol on the market” is responsible for 40 percent of recent increases in the price of oil.

Now how exactly would that work? How does growing sugarcane in Brazil or corn in Iowa push up the price of oil sucked from holes in the ground in Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela? If we roasted the corn and put the sugar in coffee — instead of making it into alcohol fuels — would oil prices go up less?

And if mixing a little ethanol in with gasoline has caused much of oil’s latest price rise, does it follow that replacing oil entirely with alternative fuels would result in even higher oil prices? By that logic, if everyone switched from Coca Cola to Kool-Aid, the price of a bottle of Coke would go up rather than down. (And if you believe that, “drinking the Kool-Aid” might be an apt description for what you’ve been up to.)

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This reminds me of the story of the adolescent who was charged with killing both his parents and then asked the judge for mercy because he was an orphan.
OPEC president Chakib Khelil has a new culprit for the rising cost of oil–ethanol. Mr. Khelil says about 40% of the recent rise in oil prices can be chalked up to ethanol, which accounts for about 1% of the world’s transportation fuel. The other 60%, apparently, is due to a weak dollar and “geopolitical worries.” The problem: OPEC’s boss doesn’t lay out the logic explaining why ethanol blended into gasoline is to blame for high oil prices.
The world ethanol industry was quick to respond to this nonsense.

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by Joseph Ratner

In addition to wind, other alternative energy interest appear to getting feisty and are even standing up to big oil this week.

A coalition of international biofuels organizations appear to have launched an attack on the oil industry cartel OPEC. In an open letter to OPEC president Chakib Khelil published in today’s Financial Times, the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association, European BioEthanol Fuel Association, Sugarcane Industry Association and the Renewable Fuels Association accuse the oil cartel of spreading false claims about ethanol and biofuels to protect their monopolistic hold on world energy supplies and further increase their profits linking to skyrocketing global oil prices.

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But first, a digression.

Part 1: When an egg was just an egg

I remember a time when an egg was just an egg. Nobody argued about that. It was a blissful time. Yet, for all its strengths, it was a fragile time held together by unsupported conclusions and limited knowledge.

Part 2: The Time of the Bad Egg

Like many a simple concept before it, the idea of an egg as “just an egg” was consumed in a storm of health consciousness and bad hair. I shall call this storm “the 80s.” Richard Simmons was sweating to the oldies, and cholesterol, it was determined, should be ripped from your body. Just like that, eggs were bad.

Part 3: The Time of Ambiguity; When an Egg is Only Halfway Decent if Eaten in Moderation

Luckily for us, we snapped out of the 80s. Sweatbands disappeared and Jazzercise faded from our collective memory. We got around to doing some research and found that there are such things as good cholesterol and bad cholesterol. Turns out you need some of both to remain healthy. And eggs were good again…. but only if you eat less than 7 a week.

Part 4: The Point

From a human health perspective eggs are confusing, and still not very well understood. They’ve been researched to death, yet we still don’t know exactly how they interact with the human body. The only thing I can say about eggs with any confidence is that in ten years time, new research will make the case for eggs even more confusing, yet people will still eat them.

And eggs are tiny.

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Ethanol is on the ropes because of the food versus fuel debate, but now a new heavyweight just stepped into the ring and this one has got some really big guns.

OPEC president Chakib Khelil has a new culprit for the rising cost of oil–ethanol. Mr. Khelil says about 40% of the recent rise in oil prices can be chalked up to ethanol, which accounts for about 1% of the world’s transportation fuel. The other 60%, apparently, is due to a weak dollar and “geopolitical worries.” The problem: OPEC’s boss doesn’t lay out the logic explaining why ethanol blended into gasoline is to blame for high oil prices.

Why ethanol falls afoul of big oil producers and oil companies is easier to explain. Oil companies don’t want to be forced to shell out for a whole new infrastructure for ethanol, from pipelines to special gas pumps. And ethanol blends in gasoline do make gas supplies go further–not good news for producers at a time when high prices are already starting to dent demand for gasoline, in the U.S. at least.

Big Ethanol is striking back. The world’s four largest ethanol lobbies, The U.S. Renewable Fuels Association, the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association, the European Bioethanol Association, and Brazil’s Sugarcane Industry Association joined forces in a full page open letter to Mr. Khelil published in the Financial Times on Wednesday.

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