Corn biofuel ‘dangerously oversold’ as green energy

Ethanol fuel made from corn may be being “dangerously oversold” as a green energy solution according to a new review of biofuels.

The report concludes that the rapidly growing and heavily subsidised corn ethanol industry in the US will cause significant environmental damage without significantly reducing the country’s dependence on fossil fuels.
“There are smarter solutions than rushing straight to corn-based ethanol,” says Scott Cullen of the Network for New Energy Choices (NNEC) and a co-author of the study. “It’s just one piece of a more complex puzzle.”

The report analyses hundreds of previous studies, and was compiled by the environmental advocacy groups Food and Water Watch, NNEC and the Vermont Law School Institute for Energy and the Environment. The study was released as the US Congress debates key agriculture and energy laws that will determine biofuel policy for years to come.

Of the country’s entire corn crop for 2007, 27% is earmarked for biofuels. That figure is up from 20% in 2006 and is beginning to put a squeeze on corn for food production.

Yet, even if all corn grown in the US was used for fuel, it would only offset 15% of the country’s gasoline use, according to the study. The same reduction could be achieved by a 3.5-mile-per-gallon increase in fuel efficiency standards for all cars and light trucks, according a federal figures cited in the report.

And using corn-derived ethanol does not necessarily even reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A number of recent studies have attempted to assess the total carbon footprint – from the field to the tailpipe – of the biofuel. Conclusions vary widely from being worse than gasoline to being about the same.

Further concerns are contained in a recent study from the World Resources Institute (PDF), cited in the report. It says the development of a corn-based ethanol market would only exacerbate problems already associated with large-scale corn production.

Such problems include groundwater depletion, soil erosion, algae blooms, and the formation of “dead zones” in waterways inundated with pesticide and fertilizer runoff.

New Scientist