Biofuels Make Warming Worse

The New York Times reports that two studies published in Science show that "almost all biofuels used today cause more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels if the full emissions costs of producing these 'green' fuels are taken into account...." Biofuels sound good on paper, since plants absorb CO2 as they grow, offsetting what is released when the fuel is burned. But the land use changes associated with biofuel production heavily outweigh this marginal benefit. As rain forests and other wild plant communities are destroyed to allow for production of fuel crops, they release their stored carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Even when existing farmland is used to grow plants for fuel, food production is simply displaced into new areas. "The clearance of grassland releases 93 times the amount of greenhouse gas that would be saved by the fuel made annually on that land."