Biofuel

In a ghostlike performance, the small cluster of white deer slip in and out of sight, peacefully weaving among the hummock-shaped bunkers that once held weapons. The striking image is one Dennis Money wants others to see. "It's a classic moment to see one of these deer on top of an ammunition bunker. You go back to that old saying about beating your swords into plowshares. You put a military base to bed and turn it into a conservation park," he said.

Biofuels like ethanol can help reduce global warming and create jobs for the rural poor, but the benefits may be undone by serious environmental problems and higher food prices, the U.N. has concluded in its first major report on bioenergy. The report raised alarms about the potential negative effect of biofuels, just days after a climate conference in Bangkok said the world had the money and technology to stabilize global warming.

Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro missed Havana's May Day parade Tuesday for the first time in decades but still managed to set the political themes for the workers march that drew half a million people.

A $500-million deal between UC Berkeley and oil giant BP to establish a joint energy laboratory has prompted growing protests by students and faculty who fear the arrangement will compromise the university's integrity. Some critics charge that the privately negotiated pact will turn the campus into "UCBP." And they question aspects of the deal that would give the oil company unusual influence at the campus, including exclusive control over some of the institute's expected findings.

Re "Big Oil buys Berkeley," Opinion, March 24 Jennifer Washburn's critique of BP's $500-million grant to a Berkeley-led consortium to research biofuels contains misinterpretations of our proposed research contract. Washburn states that "there is nothing in the plan that calls for truly independent selection of research proposals." On the contrary, faculty and scientists at UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, all partners in the Energy Biosciences Institute, will propose their own projects, with an executive committee composed of a majority of academics deciding which will be funded.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and President Bush focused on cooperation on freer global trade and increased use of alternative fuels in talks that brought the allies together for the second time in less than a month. Their talks on ethanol followed up a memorandum of understanding to promote international use of the fuel that the two nations signed when Bush visited Brazil on March 9.

President Bush and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva set aside differences Friday and announced a partnership to promote the use of alternative energy to reduce the Western Hemisphere's dependence on fossil fuels. Lula, whose left-of-center government has been critical of Bush on Iraq and the environment, suggested that the two countries can work pragmatically on issues of common interest even if they have disagreements in other areas. "After all, we ...

President Bush, who frequently jokes about his undistinguished record as a history major at Yale, is devoting considerable time these days to matters scientific. Four weeks ago, he toured a chemical plant in Delaware. Earlier this month he visited a Virginia computer-chip manufacturer. On Wednesday, at a hospital in Tennessee, he watched a video of a surgical robot excising cancerous tissue, prompting his host to ask, "You OK with the blood?"

Oil giant BP will give $500 million to a partnership led by UC Berkeley to develop new biofuels and reduce environmental harm caused by the use of fossil fuels, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and company officials announced Thursday. UC Berkeley will team up with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to develop fuel from plants, improve the extraction of oil from existing reserves and find ways to keep carbon from entering the atmosphere.