BEIJING – Charges by a UN spokesman and environmental activists that biofuels are driving up food prices are "shockingly misinformed,"  General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner tells Green Fuels Forecast.

Speaking at the Beijing auto show, Wagoner says the food price issue has become "a cause celebre without reason."

"Higher fuels costs are a far bigger driver of food prices," he says.

Wagoner notes that a dramatic escalation of ethanol use derived from corn could drive up food prices, but that situation is not even close to reality. "There are ways to produce ethanol using the cellulosic process and with winter crops that would not affect the food supply," he says.

GM is a leading advocate of ethanol or E85 use, producing millions of vehicles in the US capable of running on gasoline or E85. Wagoner bemoans the lack of effort to introduce more ethanol stations in the US. Of the 170,000 service stations across the country, just 1,300 include E85 pumps.

"Just because automakers create new technologies doesn't mean the infrastructure will be there to support them," Wagoner says. "We can't be in the energy provider business."

APRIL 2008

The electric/range extending Chevrolet Volt and Cadillac's fuel cell Provoq at GM Shanghai's display in Beijing.