SCOPE Biofuels Project report on biofuels environmental impact due: bad news expected for corn ethanol

On Thursday, a team of researchers including Princeton visiting scholar Tim Searchinger and Cornell ecology professor Robert Howarth will release “a critical science-based consensus assessment of biofuels’ impact on the global environment” at 9am eastern time.

The report will consider underestimation of the impact of nitrous oxide emissions from corn ethanol production and is the product of work by 75 scientists from 21 countries in the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE), a section of the International Council for Science (ICSU). Although the Digest has not yet obtained a copy of the full report, which will be published here , it unlikely to be a favorable report for the corn ethanol industry, which is reeling from economic and environmental difficulties that have mounted over the past year.

In January of 2008, a report by a team led by Tim Searchinger on biofuels ignited the “food vs” fuel debate which stormed all throughout 2008 and led to biofuels being labeled “a crime against humanity” by one critic.

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