"two apparently excellent climate-change ideas have been rudely pierced"

From this Washington Post op-ed piece:

...emissions trading with developing countries has been a bust. China has deliberately designed factories to release prodigious quantities of greenhouse gases, then pocketed billions for redesigning them.

So two apparently excellent climate-change ideas have been rudely pierced. Biofuels not only fail to reduce global warming but they also consume billions in taxpayer subsidies. To the extent that they take land from farming rather than forestry or pasture, they push up the cost of food, hurting the poor. Meanwhile, emissions trading with poor countries has poured billions into the coffers of the Chinese state, which is already sitting on $1.5 trillion in foreign exchange reserves and hardly needs the money.