Life of the Land's Biofuels Blog

Biofuel Articles


Study suggests ethanol vehicles could pose a risk to human health     
Posted by Giles Clark, London    
Environmental  Science & Technology (ES&T). Wednesday, 18 April 2007 

Ethanol is widely touted as an eco-friendly, clean-burning fuel. But if every vehicle in the United States ran on fuel made primarily from ethanol instead of pure gasoline, the number of respiratory-related deaths and hospitalizations would likely increase, according to a new study by Stanford University atmospheric scientist Mark Z. Jacobson. His findings are published in the April 18 online edition of the journal Environmental Science & Technology (ES&T). ''Ethanol is being promoted as a clean and renewable fuel that will reduce global warming and air pollution,'' said Jacobson, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering. ''But our results show that a high blend of ethanol poses an equal or greater risk to public health than gasoline, which already causes significant health damage.''   more


Biofuels makes sense but only if they are sustainable     
Posted by Giles Clark, London    
Wednesday, 18 April 2007 
by Dr Stephen Ladyman, UK Minister of State for Transport

Over the past few months, the UK government has come in for a fair degree of criticism for moving too far, too fast, in setting targets for biofuels under the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO).Several commentators – including some of the same environmental groups who previously criticised us for not doing more to promote biofuels – have argued that by setting a 5% target for the amount of road transport biofuels we use in the UK by 2010, we are in danger of creating an environmental and humanitarian disaster. more

Soy cultivation spells doom for Paraguayan campesinos

Written by April Howard & Benjamin Dangl, In These Times Tuesday, 17 April 2007
Source: In These Times

Rural eastern Paraguay used to be full of jungle, small farms, schools and wildlife. Now it is a green sea of soybeans. The families, trees and birds are gone. The schools are empty. The air is filled with the toxic stench of the pesticides like paraquat and 2,4-D used to protect the soy crops.  We drove through the sea of soy on a red dirt road. Meriton Ramírez was bringing us to the former community of Minga Porá, to the farm where his family used to live. Ramírez is a member of the Asociación de Agricultores de Alto Paraná (ASAGRAPA), a farmer’s union spearheading the fight against the expansion of the soy industry.  more

Hybrid Electric Vehicles - Better Than Ethanol
Mario Osava
Inter Press Service News Agency (http://ipsnews.net/)

RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 17 (IPS) - Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) are the best way to achieve a drastic reduction in greenhouse gases produced by vehicle exhaust fumes, until hydrogen-powered models become viable. They are even more environmentally-friendly than the use of biofuels. Powered by an internal combustion engine and an electric motor, HEVs are becoming an attractive alternative in the light of the most recent reports by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which recommend urgent measures to curb global warming, say Brazilian experts.   more

State should hold off on bonds for biofuels

Honolulu Advertiser Opinion
Tuesday, April 17, 2007

There is such a thing as a reasonable idea whose time has not yet come. That seems to be the case with Senate Bill 1718, which proposes special purpose revenue bonds for the financing of a biofuels plant on Maui.  more

Peak Soil: Why cellulosic ethanol, biofuels are unsustainable and a threat to America        

Written by Alice Friedemann     
Released April 10, 2007

Ethanol is an agribusiness get-rich-quick scheme that will bankrupt our topsoil.  Nineteenth century western farmers converted their corn into whiskey to make a profit. Archer Daniels Midland, a large grain processor, came up with the same scheme in the 20th century. But ethanol was a product in search of a market, so ADM spent three decades relentlessly lobbying for ethanol to be used in gasoline. Today ADM makes record profits from ethanol sales and government subsidies. more


The Time for Biofuel Is Now
Mario Osava, April 7, 2007
Inter Press Service News Agency (http://ipsnews.net/)

SAO PAULO, Apr 7 (IPS) - Energy could be a factor in favour of competitiveness and development in Latin America, in a world in which the coming oil shortage has already caused a surge in energy prices, and biofuels are emerging as an economically viable alternative.   more

Overlooked impacts of bioproducts
Technology News –January 17, 2007

Bio-based fuel and plastics could reduce global warming, but they have other environmental impacts that should be factored into assessments of the products' "greenness". The debate over whether plant-derived products are better for the environment than their petroleum-based counterparts has centered on the amount of energy that goes into growing the crops and making the products as well as the greenhouse gases that result from burning fuels. New research published today on ES&T’s Research ASAP website (DOI: 10.1021/es0606125) is the first to quantify the environmental impacts of the fertilizers, pesticides, and equipment that are used in soybean and corn agriculture. The work suggests that policy makers should rethink the benefits of bio-based fuels and plastics. more

Promise of Biofuels Boom Is Overrated, Report Says
Jim Lobe, October 25
Inter Press Service News Agency (http://ipsnews.net/)

WASHINGTON, Oct 25 (IPS) - Despite an explosion of private investment in the U.S. liquid biofuels industry, taxpayers are contributing around seven billion dollars a year in subsidies which could be better used for other energy- and environment-saving technologies, according to a major new report released here Wednesday.  The 93-page report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) said the industry is likely to receive even more money -- from eight to 11 billion dollars annually over the next few years -- from federal, state and local authorities if present policies remain in place, despite evidence that their ability to substantially reduce U.S. dependence on Middle East oil or the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere is limited.  Moreover, according to "Biofuels -- At What Cost?", the unintended and potentially negative consequences of government subsidisation of the industry are not being taken sufficiently into account.   more

Harvesting Sunshine for Biofuels
Gloria Helena Rey * Special to IPS
Inter Press Service News Agency (http://ipsnews.net/)

PUERTO LÓPEZ, Colombia, Oct 12 (IPS) - The sun generates energy; sugar cane, cassava, African oil palm, beets and potatoes store it; and Colombians are determined to transform the energy concentrated in these crops into biofuels. To harvest sunlight, Colombia, the second richest country in the world in terms of biodiversity after Brazil, according to the Environment Ministry, is developing a series of biofuel projects involving these crops.   more

Biofuel Boom Sparks Environmental Fears
Mario Osava
Inter Press Service News Agency (http://ipsnews.net/)

RIO DE JANEIRO, Sep 22 (Tierramérica) - The use of biofuels is on the rise in Latin America and is feeding dreams of abundance in countries like Argentina and Colombia. But the experience of Brazil, a pioneer in this alternative energy, raises questions about their potential negative environmental consequences. With ethanol and biodiesel as a springboard, Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva aims to turn his country into an energy superpower -- in contrast to the 1970s when the Brazilian economy was thrashed by its dependence on oil imports and its dramatic price hikes.   But environmentalists warn that although biofuels reduce emissions of greenhouse gases (which lead to global climate change), they could also trigger a massive expansion of the biofuel crops, pushing the agricultural frontier deeper into the forests, destroying habitat and biodiversity.   more

The ecological and social tragedy of crop-based biofuel production in the Americas (2006)

Miguel A Altieri
Professor of Agroecology
University of California, Berkeley

Elizabeth Bravo
Red por una América Latina Libre de Transgenicos
Quito, Ecuador

The nations of the OECD—the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, who account for 56% of the planet’s energy consumption, are desperately in need of a liquid fuel replacement for oil. Worldwide petroleum extraction rates are expected to peak this year, and global supply will likely dwindle significantly in the next fifty years. There is also a great need to find substitutes for fossil fuels, which are one of the major contributors to global climate change through the emission of CO2 and other greenhouse gases.

Biofuels have been promoted as a promising alternative to petroleum. Industry, government and scientific proponents of biofuels claim that they will serve as an alternative to peaking oil, mitigate climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, enhancing farmer incomes, and promoting rural development. But rigorous research and analysis conducted by respected ecologists and social scientists suggests that the large-scale industrial boom in biofuels will be disastrous for farmers, the environment, biodiversity preservation and consumers, particularly, the poor.   more