Louden Nelson Community Center, Rm. 3
301 Center St., Santa Cruz

* Can biofuels solve the climate crisis?
* Is ethanol production good or bad for the environment?
* What about cellulosic ethanol?
* Why did a UN official recently label iofuels production “a crime against humanity”? (Jean Ziegler, special rapporteur to the UN on the Right to Food)

David Fridley, of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division of Lawrence Berkeley Labs, will address these questions in his talk “The Myths of Biofuels” on Thursday, January 24, at Louden Nelson Center, Room 3, at 7 pm. The event is Free/Donation requested.

Fridley, whose work centers on end-user energy efficiency, spent many years in the oil industry and is an expert on energy issues in China. He helped to draft the Peak Oil resolution adopted by the City of San Francisco to prepare for the inevitable decline in oil resources.

Fridley’s talk presents a scientists’ point of view on the many claims currently being made about the role of biofuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel, in a sustainable energy future. Separating the hype from the facts, he will clarify the many issues about biofuels in language clearly accessible to a general audience.

While not denying that there may be some useful small-scale applications for biofuels, Fridley makes clear that biofuels are no replacement for our rapidly depleting fossil fuels. “The amount of energy that we consume in fossil fuels every year exceeds the amount of energy that is captured from the sun in every plant in America, including the roots,” he says.

He also makes clear the humanitarian impact of a biofuels-based future: “There is simply no way to achieve [the current target] levels of biodiesel blend…if we don’t want people to starve….Why we have chosen to take the fundamental of human life [i.e. food] and link it to the price of a nonrenewable resource [i.e. oil], is an irrationality I don’t understand.”

His presentation will be followed by “A Local Plan for Energy Independence” presented by transportation expert Micah Posner and NASA researcher and solar advocate Joe Jordan. According to Posner, “ There’s no reason to convert an oil addiction into a biofuels addiction. Energy independence starts with walking to the store.”