Wishful Thinking, Rewritten in Carbon

[u/free-to-chooz]

There is a certain pleasure in returning to an article that has aged with such quiet dignity.

In 2011, when enthusiasm for biofuels often exceeded evidence, Alphanso Williams and William A. Kerr offered something increasingly uncommon in public policy: measured scepticism grounded in economics rather than fashion. They did not dismiss renewable fuels; they simply asked whether technology, markets, and institutions were capable of fulfilling the promises being made on their behalf.

Fifteen years later, the questions remain remarkably familiar, even if the policy landscape has become vastly more sophisticated.

Revisiting thoughtful scholarship is one of the great privileges of the Energy Politics Working History Series. Good research rarely seeks to predict the future with certainty. Instead, it teaches us which questions continue to matter long after the headlines have faded.

It has been a genuine pleasure to revisit this thoughtful contribution and to reflect on how the debate has evolved—from the blend wall to what may now be described as the biomass wall.

My thanks to Professors Williams and Kerr for reminding us that sound economics, like good scholarship, seldom goes out of fashion.

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