When you support "green" fantasies the green fairy leaves a present under your pillow - a lump of coal. It's a twisted cluster grope of several nonsense tales used to frighten or bribe children.

Just a few years ago, politicians and environmental groups in the Netherlands were thrilled by the early and rapid adoption of “sustainable energy,” achieved in part by coaxing electrical plants to use biofuel — in particular, palm oil from Southeast Asia.

Spurred by government subsidies, energy companies became so enthusiastic that they designed generators that ran exclusively on the oil, which in theory would be cleaner than fossil fuels like coal because it is derived from plants.

But last year, when scientists studied practices at palm plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia, this green fairy tale began to look more like an environmental nightmare.

Rising demand for palm oil in Europe brought about the clearing of huge tracts of Southeast Asian rainforest and the overuse of chemical fertilizer there.

Worse still, the scientists said, space for the expanding palm plantations was often created by draining and burning peatland, which sent huge amounts of carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

This isn't news really since many (including me) have been saying this for some time, but it seems to be getting a higher profile lately. It made no sense from the very beginning but politicians and activists were in a dream world.

They still are, and we are doing it again with ethanol in the US. We've done it repeatedly with one green scheme after another. Politicians and activists ride high on this nonsense, and a few high rollers make a bundle.

I wouldn't mind so much that these creeps ride high or that the fat cats get fatter, or even that they wreck the environment while claiming to save it, if the schemes actually worked. They don't. It's a wreck.

I doubt that anything will change.

The ineffectual circle jerk will proceed until some unexpected someone fields a better method. Progress happens in spite of politicians and activists, not because of them.