China, Ethanol, and the NY Times

In observance of today's White House visit by the President of China, Hu Jintao, the New York Times wrote an opinion piece that tied the future of peaceful energy co-existence with the vested interest both nations share in the development of alternative fuels made from biomass. Here are the paragraphs that jumped out at me:

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How Dare They Use Our Oil!
New York Times Opinion, April 20, 2006

The United States doesn't have the right to tell a third of humanity to go back to their bicycles because the party's over. Clearly, Mr. Bush and Mr. Hu must tackle energy in a real and meaningful way. That can be done only if the United States both helps China find alternative energy sources and shows that America is doing the same thing itself.

The best possible course would be for China to leapfrog an oil-based economy and head toward sustainable alternative fuels, just as other countries are jumping past the construction of land lines for telephone service and going straight to wireless systems. China has a lot of biomass — crops, forests and wood products — that could be converted into ethanol.


technorati biofuels, ethanol, China, petroleum, biomass, defense