Japan says no more gambling on global warming scams with taxpayer money

2/15/11, "Trillions for biomass projects fruitless," Japan Times, Kyodo News

"None of the government's 214 biomass promotion projects — with public funding coming to ¥6.55 trillion

• ($80 billion)— over the past six years

has produced effective results in the struggle against global warming, according to an official report released Tuesday.

The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, which evaluates public works projects, urged the agriculture and five other ministries conducting biomass projects using sewage sludge, garbage and wood,

• to take corrective action.

The Administrative Evaluation Bureau found in a study of biomass projects through March 2009 that the cumulative budget totaled about ¥6.55 trillion.

The six ministries taking part in such projects, however, have yet to confirm the financial results for 92, or 44 percent, of the 214 projects, with one bureau official saying: "The figures tell everything. The ministries need to produce certain results because they are

• using taxpayers' money."

The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry spent about ¥1.6 billion on a project to produce livestock feedstuff from unsold boxed lunches from convenience stores. The project was abandoned after its management firm collapsed, the report says.

The Environment Ministry and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry were

• subsidizing similar projects at the same time, it said.

While the six ministries have argued that 161, or 75 percent, of the 214 projects have produced some results, the bureau concluded that none has produced results that would lead to the formation

• of a recycling-based society, the report says."

via Tom Nelson via Reference Frame