Biofuels stink

About 18 months ago I wrote a series of posts about bio-fuels and concluded that, particularly corn-based ethanol, did little to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and probably increased them. The reason being that it requires more fossil fuel energy to grow the corn, harvest it, and process it into ethanol than you get back from the ethanol. At that time, some of the studies addressed the question of land use, but that played little role in the conclusion. The energy balance just plain didn't work, even without considering land use.

But, now, two new studies have been released focusing intensely on land use, and the conclusions are devastating for biofuel.

Almost all biofuels used today cause more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels if the full emissions costs of producing these “green” fuels are taken into account, two studies being published Thursday have concluded.

The principal problem is that using corn or other agricultural resources to make biofuels either requires new crop land to be cleared to grow the biofuel source, or, if the biofuel source is grown on existing crop land, new crop land has to be cleared to grow food. This works worldwide. If corn ethanol use in the US drives up the price of corn and other food worldwide, the incentives to clear and burn the rain forests in Brazil increase, because more money can be made from growing crops there. And, agriculture is one the least efficient biological sinks for carbon.

The clearance of grassland releases 93 times the amount of greenhouse gas that would be saved by the fuel made annually on that land, said Joseph Fargione, lead author of the second paper, and a scientist at the Nature Conservancy. “So for the next 93 years you’re making climate change worse, just at the time when we need to be bringing down carbon emissions.”

The only real solution in the short-term is conservation through use of fuel efficient vehicles, public instead of private transport, and less transport altogether. A lot could also be saved by reducing the excess packaging for consumer products.