Environment Protection Agency Eyes Crackdown on Not-So-Green Biofuels

Courtesy of newser – Plants consume carbon dioxide, so growing corn to produce ethanol should be at worst a zero-sum game, emissions-wise, right? Wrong, says the EPA. There's another factor involved: Turning food crops into fuel drives up their prices, which raises demand for farmland worldwide. In places like Brazil, that means chopping down the rainforest, which produces massive emissions, NPR reports.

Once it factored worldwide deforestation into its energy equations, the EPA found that the current biofuels standards might cause more harm than good—and is considering stricter regulations for ethanol plants that could curb the industry. "What I think this means for the industry is you need to innovate," says a UC Berkeley scientist.

for full story click here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103893530

biofuels, epa

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Vote: +1

"Reading the article gives me a lot of hope. When lots of land were put into production of corn for bio ethanol the shortage of corn for food led to a price increase in the price of corn, making the cost of bio ethanol prohibitively expensive. Even if the price of oil increases the price of bio ethanol will track it due to the fact that a large element of the cost of growing corn is related to the price of oil. It was a nice try but bio fuel from corn was a failed experiment not the future."

By: Crunchtourism :: 2 years ago