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China land reform disappears from radar
Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times
BEIJING -- A funny thing happened on the way to the Third Plenary Session of the 17th Central Committee, where China's Communist Party leaders were expected to finally enact a bold land reform program allowing farmers eventually to buy, sell or lease their fields.

Coverage of reform issues had been stepped up in the official press. And President Hu Jintao made a high-profile trip to rural Anhui province, where state media said he told farmers that they would be able to transfer their land rights.

Yet by the time the closed-door meeting wrapped up Sunday, the issue had all but disappeared from public view. It wasn't even mentioned in the final communique from the 368-member decision-making body.

That has led some analysts to speculate that hard-liners who benefit from the status quo managed to fight off the reforms. Others say that, given the vague nature of many Chinese official statements, the measures still may be implemented...
(15 October 2008)

Plant-based fuel makers face tough test
Andrew Welsh-Huggins, AP via Forbes
It may be one of the biggest green gambles of the century: a national goal of converting wood, grass, corn stalks and garbage into 16 billion gallons of cellulosic biofuels annually by 2022.

No commercial-scale refineries exist, researchers have yet to agree on the best technology for fuel conversion and there is no distribution network to handle fuel once it is made.

... Advocates say the odds are on cellulosic ethanol's side for a variety of reasons. The need to reduce dependence on foreign oil has never appeared greater. Petroleum supplies will continue to be tight as the appetite for oil in China and India and other emerging countries grows. And belief is growing in the "peak oil" theory, that the outer limits of the global petroleum supply has been reached.
(16 October 2008)

Protesters disrupt European biofuels summit
John Vidal, Guardian
Europe's largest conference on biofuels was brought to a halt this morning when environmental activists invaded the main hall and accused the industry of destroying rainforests, evicting communities, and increasing hunger and climate change around the world.

As six protesters from a group calling itself Action against Agrofuels climbed into the rafters of the main conference hall in Newark, Nottinghamshire, other activists at the European Biofuels Expo set off rape alarms inside the centre.

"It is unacceptable that the biofuels industry should hold a conference where it portrays itself as 'green'," said John Simmons , a protester, from the roof of the Newark building.
(16 October 2008)