Corn Ethanol No Climate Solution

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Study: Corn Ethanol No Climate Solution

 

Greenhouse emissions much higher if land use factored in, researchers

say

 

The Associated Press

updated 5:50 p.m. CT, Thurs., Feb. 7, 2008

 

WASHINGTON - The widespread use of ethanol from corn could result in

nearly twice the greenhouse gas emissions as the gasoline it would

replace because of expected land-use changes, researchers concluded

Thursday.

 

The study challenges the rush to corn-based ethanol as a response to

global warming, but says there is a future for ethanol from waste

products that do not require uprooting land where carbon is already

absorbed by trees and plants.

 

The researchers said that past studies showing the benefits of

ethanol in combating climate change have not taken into account

almost certain changes in land use worldwide if ethanol from corn —

and in the future from other feedstocks such as switchgrass — become

a prized commodity.

 

" Using good cropland to expand biofuels will probably exacerbate

global warming, " concludes the study published in Science magazine.

 

The researchers said that farmers under economic pressure to produce

biofuels will increasingly " plow up more forest or grasslands, "

releasing much of the carbon formerly stored in plants and soils

through decomposition or fires. Globally, more grasslands and forests

will be converted to growing the crops to replace the loss of grains

when U.S. farmers convert land to biofuels, the study said.

 

Ethanol industry responds

 

The Renewable Fuels Association, which represents ethanol producers,

called the researchers' view of land-use changes " simplistic " and

said the study " fails to put the issue in context. "

 

" Assigning the blame for rainforest deforestation and grassland

conversion to agriculture solely on the renewable fuels industry

ignores key factors that play a greater role, " said Bob Dinneen, the

association's president.

 

There has been a rush to developing biofuels, especially ethanol from

corn and cellulosic feedstock such as switchgrass and wood chips, as

a substitute for gasoline. President Bush signed energy legislation

in December that mandates a six-fold increase in ethanol use as a

fuel to 36 billion gallons a year by 2022, calling the requirement

key to weaning the nation from imported oil.

 

The new " green " fuel, whether made from corn or other feedstocks, has

been widely promoted — both in Congress and by the White House — as a

key to combating global warming. Burning it produces less carbon

dioxide, the leading greenhouse gas, than the fossil fuels it will

replace.

 

During the recent congressional debate over energy legislation,

lawmakers frequently cited estimates that corn-based ethanol produces

20 percent less greenhouse gases in production, transportation and

use than gasoline, and that cellulosic ethanol has an even greater

benefit of 70 percent less emissions.

 

The study released Thursday by researchers affiliated with Princeton

University and a number of other institutions maintains that these

analyses " were one-sided " and counted the carbon benefits of using

land for biofuels but not the carbon costs of diverting land from its

existing uses.

 

" The other studies missed a key factor that everyone agrees should

have been included, the land use changes that actually are going to

increase greenhouse gas emissions, " said Tim Searchinger, a research

scholar at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and

International Affairs and lead author of the study.

 

The study said that after taking into account expected worldwide land-

use changes, corn-based ethanol, instead of reducing greenhouse gases

by 20 percent, will increases it by 93 percent compared to using

gasoline over a 30-year period. Biofuels from switchgrass, if they

replace croplands and other carbon-absorbing lands, would result in

50 percent more greenhouse gas emissions, the researchers concluded.

 

Biofuels from waste urged

 

Not all ethanol would be affected by the land-use changes, the study

said.

 

" We should be focusing on our use of biofuels from waste products "

such as garbage, which would not result in changes in agricultural

land use, Searchinger said in an interview. " And you have to be

careful how much you require. Use the right biofuels, but don't

require too much too fast. Right now we're making almost exclusively

the wrong biofuels. "

 

The study included co-authors affiliated with Iowa State University,

the Woods Hole Research Center and the Agricultural Conservation

Economics. It was supported by a grant from NASA's Terrestrial

Ecology Program, and by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Searchinger, in addition to his affiliation with Princeton, is a

fellow at the Washington-based German Marshall Fund of the United

States.

 

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

 

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23057867/