In the 1990s, virtually everyone except those closest to environmental issues knew biofuels were a bad idea in their current incarnation.   But evangelists like Al Gore insisted they were the future and concerns about what it would do to the food supply for poor people went unheeded.

Now we know - at least in ethanols based on that technology, biofuels are worse for the environment and made food more expensive and Mr. Gore has said he made a mistake endorsing them to garner support for his presidential race but once government policies - and therefore lobbyists - are in place, it is hard to turn back.

And the rest of the world has followed the biofuels path as well.   In the world-wide race to develop energy sources that are seen as "green" because they are renewable, the most basic questions remain unanswered.

In a paper released today by the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary, authors Michal Moore, Senior Fellow, and Sarah M. Jordaan at Harvard University in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, look at the basic question of whether these energy sources are ethical.

In addition to arguing that the greenhouse gas benefits of biofuels are overstated by many policymakers, the authors argue that there are four questions that need to be considered before encouraging and supporting the production of more biofuel. These questions are:

 What is the effect of biofuel production on food costs, especially for poor populations?

 Should more land be used for biofuel when the return of energy per acre is low? Are there better uses for that land?

 In addition to worrying about the impact of global warming, should we not consider the impact on land of massively expanding biofuel production?

What are the other economic impacts of large scale production of biofuel?

"Policymakers, especially in the U.S., have been in a rush to expand biofuel protection," says Michal Moore. "But they need to start thinking outside of the box of climate change and the corn lobby.

"If policy is designed to create better outcomes for everyone, then we need to subject policy to ethical tests. In many respects, current policy around biofuels fails those tests."

Ethical risks of environmental policies: the case of ethanol in North America, S. M. Jordaan and M. C. Moore