November 1, 2007
The biofuels backlash gathers more support
Our own Martin Wolf has let fly with both barrels at the insanity of US and EU support for biofuels, using for ammunition the devastating case made by the Global Subsidies Initiative.
When Martin, green campaigner George Monbiot and blogging "Big Oil" engineer Robert Rapier are all on the attack against a policy, it is hard to imagine that it will stand. But the farm lobbies of the US and EU alike are redoubtable opponents.
John Maynard Keynes famously wrote at the end of the General Theory: "The power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas." But he never had to try to kill a farm subsidy programme in Congress.
