Worst Ideas of the 21st Century #10

I can see why someone might think that biofuels have a benefit over fossil fuels in that they are a renewable energy source but enough is enough. I'm pretty sure last time I checked humans need food before the ability to drive a giant car around. AutoblogGreen reports on a group called Food Before Fuel who are protesting the US government's policies on biofuels.

ABG reports that "...these policies are responsible to up to 30 percent of the world's food price inflation." and "...corn is more expensive for food producers and food ends up being more expensive for consumers." So not only are we taking food out of our own mouths but the food we DO get costs more! BRILLIANT!

FuelFrog Tells It Like It Is

FuelFrog is a simple website that allows you to enter data from each fill-up at the petrol (gas) station then displays your aggregated data. By providing the distance you've driven since the last fill-up, the current price and how much fuel you put in it can give you all sorts of interesting data like your average fuel consumption (I'm currently running at 8.8 litres per 100km or 0.27 MPG for you old school non-metricists).

One feature I've asked them to add is the ability to display how much it costs you to travel a certain distance. e.g. Using the data they've captured I figured it costs me $12.35 AUD to travel 100km (that's $11.68 USD per 62 miles or $18.84 USD per 100 miles)... and the bad news is it's only going to get worse. :(