Today in Biofuels Opinion: “There is a real danger that since the acreage impacts are so minuscule that they cannot be accurately modeled in a formal manner.”

Professors Darrel Good and Scott Irwin, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana: “It is our opinion that any analysis of the indirect land use impact of U.S. renewable biofuels mandates must be approximately consistent with the calculations presented here. The most important point is that U.S. mandates for corn-based ethanol through 2015 will use a very small proportion of the world’s crop land. There is a real danger that since the acreage impacts are so minuscule that they cannot be accurately modeled in a formal manner.”

Joanna Schroeder in Domestic Fuel: “BP has been marketing itself as “Beyond Petroleum” for several years now but it appears that Valero is vying for the top spot in “green energy..Speculation about the affects of Valero’s major entry into the biofuels market is rampant…But the question is much broader than Valero’s impact. The bigger question is which of the seven sisters (Big Oil) will be next to enter the biofuels marketplace? Shell is already invested in cellulosic ethanol and Marathon has owenership in several ethanol plants. I’m not placing my bet on ExxonMobil.”

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