We all want to reduce the amount of filthy poisonous oil and coal which is burnt every year to make electricity, right? Good, so we need to find other ways to make electricity. Wind farms are one way, but they have their drawbacks (like, urm, not producing any electricity when the wind isn't blowing). Growing fuel crops is another way: think of it as being just like growing trees for use as firewood. This is nothing at all like digging holes and fill them in again. Digging holes and filling them in again is pointless and unproductive. These crops are used to make electricity, which is very useful and productive.

It gives off carbon dioxide.

Smoke from wood and plants is generally not very toxic, as opposed to the dirty filthy black stuff that burning oil gives off.

But CO2 still causes global warming.

We don't want to be burning stuff to make electricity.

Instead,we should have solar panels on our houses, supplement that with wind and wave and water power, and if we can't make enough like that then maybe use a tiny bit of nuclear power to make it up (but hopefully that last one wouldn't be necessary)

In addition, we should turn the lights out when we're not using them, cut down on central heating by having better insulation (and perhaps wearing a bit more inside when it's cold outside), get more efficient washing machines (etc) and so on. That way, we'd need a whole lot less energy.

We should be able to get all the energy we need without burning things.

By the way, there's not enough environmental debate on this.
Social justice is really important but let's be environmentalists as well! :-)

Wood and plants are a sink for the storage of carbon dioxide how on earth is burning them going to help global warming absolute madness nice one Tony.

It's hardly surprising that the governemnt intends to jump on the renewable energy scam, the EU recently passed a directive which includes Municipal waste as a scource of renewable energy. they also talk about a % of industrial waste.
In Italy it's already law, from time, and the italian "eco mafia" routinely burns toxic waste.
the scam being you get paid 3 or four times the going rate
for the energy produced. So they get paid, a lot, to get shot of the toxic waste, and a lot for the energy .. good scam !

While I personaly think we would be much better off investing in wind/wave/solar, the idea of growing biomass to burn isnt such a stupid idea as it sounds.
Its quite an old idea - the theory being that as plants grow they fix carbon from the air (they take in CO2 and give off O2) this will lower the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.
Then later when they biomass is burnt the carbon in it reacts with O2 in the air turning back into CO2.
So in theory at the end of the whole thing you have the same ammount of CO2 (unlike oil where it is increased).

So its not a bad idea its just that other alternative fuel sources are probably a better bet.
(as for using the land to grow food - we already make enough food to easily feed everyone in this country (and to give a fair bit of food to other countries) the reason people go hungry is that it is not profitable to give them the food because even the poorest will buy some food and if you feed them for free they wont - feeding the world requires social changes not ecological ones and certainly not GM foods no matter what Monsanto says!)