There is an Environmental Protection Agency decision pending, involving whether palm oil from Indonesia should be qualified as a "renewable fuel" for blending in US diesel gas.
The answer isn't as obvious as it sounds, since regulations require that such renewable fuels be at least 20% cleaner than the gasoline they're being mixed into. Current EPA estimates suggest that palm oil doesn't meet that criterion. Further complicating the issue is that Indonesia is rapidly whacking down forests to clear land for oil palm farming, which may affect greenhouse gases just as badly as, or worse than, burning the unadulterated gasoline.
There is lots of potential profit involved for palm oil producers, distributors, and others, so those folks (can you believe there is actually a lobbying group called the "American Palm Oil Council"?) are throwing up chaff regarding the decision, claiming that the EPA's analysis is based on faulty data and erroneous assumptions. (We may assume of course that the APOC's data and assumptions are "correct" and "reliable.")
One palm oil pusher, for example, argues that it's "highly speculative" to try to figure out how production of more palm oil might drive deforestation. Well no, it's not really so speculative. Estimates of the extent and effects of deforestation may vary, but it can only go in one direction: Greater production means more land clearing.
And this, to me, is the crux of the matter. Biofuels generally have not borne out the predictions their proponents made for them. Ultimately, it boils down to this: Biofuels are still fossil fuels. They may burn somewhat cleaner, and even if they can somewhat mitigate pollution in the short term, their wide cultivation will have long-term consequences (deforestation, reduced land for food crops, and rising food prices) that could far outweigh the short-term benefits. Do we want gas more than we want food? There is little need for us to go hunting new forms of fossil fuels that burn only 20% cleaner, when the real issue facing us is to find non-fossil, non-polluting energy sources.
The EPA's estimates are probably correct. The question is whether they'll be overturned in order to provide short-term profits to a handful of palm oil plutocrats.