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Biofuels Will Add to Heating Climate, Studies Say

Posted Feb 8, 08 8:21 PM CST in Technology,  Science & Health 

(Newser) – Biofuels could hurt Earth more than help it, two new studies conclude. Over 30 years, argues one, corn-based ethanol would spout twice the greenhouse gas of regular gasoline; the other notes environmental damage likely to be wreaked by chopping rainforests and other areas for production, the Washington Post reports. The findings question international focus on using biofuel to combat climate change.

“We can't get to a result, no matter how heroically we make assumptions on behalf of corn ethanol, where it will actually generate greenhouse-gas benefits,” one author said. But, argue biofuel workers and some congressmen, while today’s ethanol might not be a solution, the fuel’s efficiency will improve as technology does. “We can make better biofuels,” says one researcher.

Source Washington Post

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This aerial photo shows acacia logs waiting to be transported as natural forest is seen on the right, in Pangkalan Kerinci, Riau province, on Sumatra island, Indonesia, Friday, Nov. 2, 2007. Experts...   (Associated Press)
An oil worker operates a fuel tank during the opening of a privately owned bio-diesel factory, run by Peru's Heaven Petroleum Operators, in Lima, Thursday, Jan. 31, 2008. (AP Photo/Karel Navarro)   (Associated Press)
In this June 8, 2007 file photo, a lone burned stump stands in a field cleared near Sumber, Kalimantan, Indonesia. Some experts are warning that the deforestation to create land for bio-fuel crops could...   (Associated Press)
Corn-and-soybean farmer John Adams walks past corn storage silos on his 950-acre farm Thursday, April 5, 2007, near Atlanta, Ill. Developing farmland to develop crops-based fuels might do more harm than...   (Associated Press)
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