** FILE ** A worker loads palm oil fruits onto a lorry at a palm oil plantation in Sepang, Malaysia, in this March 13, 2007 file photo. Palm oil, once seen as a cheap and environmentally friendly alternative to petroleum for power plants, is being looked at again. Environmentalists have long warned that many plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia were planted on clear-cut rain forests, threatening the home of endangered animals like the orangutan and the Sumatran tiger. Now, some electricity companies have put plans on hold to switch to palm oil fuel. A report late last year claims the environmental damage by the plantations, especially those on drained peat swamps, is greater than the benefits of burning palm oil for power. Peat swamps store carbon like "buried sunshine," and destroying them unleashes huge amounts of stored carbon into the air. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
