Biofuels have become the first real test case for a post-oil era in which food, animal feed, fuel, and chemicals compete for land in a new bio-economy. Whatever conclusion the European Union reaches, it may set the agenda for sustainable land use for the future. It touches on social issues, environment issues, trade issues, energy issues, and more.

At the EU headquarters in Brussels intense emotions in the debate over one of Europe’s most contentious environmental issues unfolds — the use of biofuels, long touted as an alternative to carbon-emitting petroleum. There is a huge rift in Brussels over biofuel policy. It is a war that pits the European Commission’s

agriculture experts against its climate experts, and Europe’s auto and farming lobbies against environmentalists.

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