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November 26, 2008 | Jim Lane | Comments 1

Today in Biofuels Opinion: “It would be easy – and wrong – to rely on a much-publicized study that connects U.S. corn ethanol production to greenhouse gas release via indirect land use change.”

A blog post on IndyStar.com: “I for one applaud the IRL for switching to sugar based ethanol, and hope they will switch to cellulosic when the technology becomes available. Ethanol can be a great fuel for this country and the world, but it ain’t gonna get there with corn when producing corn-based ethanol is a net energy expenditure, and it’s costing tons of taxpayer dollars in subsidies and it’s screwing up world food supplies.”

Professor Bruce Dale in the Washington Times: “As the Environmental Protection Agency fulfills its requirement to determine how direct and indirect land use change is impacted by crops produced to make biofuels, it needs to assure that good science is used to create good policy. It would be easy – and wrong – to rely on a much-publicized study that connects U.S. corn ethanol production to greenhouse gas release via indirect land use change…Until its conclusions are supported by independent analyses using a variety of tools and assumptions, the paper is not scientifically significant.”

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    Filed Under: Opinion

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    1. Joelle Brink | Oct 7, 2009 | Reply

      Bruce Dale is usually right and this is no exception. But failed states and irresponsible governments are the real villains of indirect land use.

      There’s no excuse. For every bad example there is at least one sustainable model on the same continent. Colombia, formerly a failed state ruled by drug cartels, has reinvented itself as a green economy and super-efficient ethanol producer. In only three years, working in a single valley,it has begun to rival Brazil, but with exemplary land use and labor practices, and significantly lower unit costs.

      India, which played a part in the Colombian success story, has perhaps the strictest land use laws of all. Biofuel feedstocks can only be grown on marginal land unsuitable for food crops, and with the approval of local authorities and worker groups. But rather than limiting biofuel production, the laws have resulted in large scale diversification of feedstocks in favor of wastes, algae, and drought tolerant species like Sweet Sorghum.

      As an industry, we need to recognize models of excellence like these and hold all producers responsible for meeting higher standards.

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