Sure, Sean Penn's a great actor, but when it comes to other issues, he's about as dense as granite (that means "very" if Sean Penn happens to be reading this). He's going around the country as we speak talking about the wonders of biofuels.

Biofuels are nothing to write home about. At the stage they're currently in, they're not very energy efficient and they have a tendency to drive up the costs of other food-based products. Is there potential? Absolutely. In fact, with the right funding, biodiesel can become a true competitive commodity. But not right now. Right now, biodiesel is not a good option.

What Sean Penn should be doing is going around the country and highlighting all of the clean energy technology we already have available that's already efficient enough to be put into use. In addition to a number of cars running on hybrid batteries and offering superior fuel efficiency, there's plenty of options available that can be implemented immediately and will have no effect on the cost of food.

Still, the cost of food is going to rise. When you have an entire farming industry running on gasoline and diesel fuel, and the prices of both have tripled since 2001, everyone is going to suffer. Except the wealthiest one percent, of course. Because they have plenty of tax breaks.

Yours,

Ken Brosky 

Given it's Earth Day/Week (depending on who you talk to), I thought I'd pick out a few of the best articles I've found on Climate Progress that might be of interest.

NY Times Magazine -- ... is full of junk. Don't bother reading it, and by the way those little articles about global warming you see occasionally? Try to avoid those, too. What relatively little journalism remains at this point is focused entirely on Obama's "bitter" comments. This is a good article for those who believe everything they read.

Future Cars -- One new car gets up to 300 miles per gallon, and guess what? It's already a hot commodity in California, where it's raked up 1,400+ pre-orders. Also, the article looks at a Nova story with more information about newer cars.

Carbon-Saving Ideas -- I particularly enjoyed this piece, because it shows just how much a few small, bright ideas can add up when it comes to cutting Co2. California has a lot on its plate, attempting to reduce carbon emissions by 30 percent, but it's finding that the easiest way to do it is to rely on a variety of smaller initiatives that aren't costly and easy to implement. Good to think about, given Wisconsin will probably have something like this soon (only it'll be 10 percent, most likely).