[Gasification] Additional information on biofuel effects upon theGHG

[Greg and April]

Based on what data?

One problem that stands out with this theory is the assumption that the 
entire world is going to use corn to make ethanol, and that ethanol is the 
only biofuel available.


Neither one is true, and that starts to cast doubt on the entire theory.


The fact that there is assumption that more forests are going to be removed 
in favor of grain.    This may or may not be true, since there are many 
other crops that can be made use of both for food and for fuel .


Of the issues shown in the previous post, there are few actual facts and 
many guesses, and as such the belief that biofuels will contribute to GHG's 
is a unsupported guess, based on other guesses.


Greg H.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <LINVENT at aol.com>
To: <gasification at listserv.repp.org>
Cc: <STOVES at listserv.repp.org>
Sent: Friday, February 29, 2008 21:13
Subject: [Gasification] Additional information on biofuel effects upon 
theGHG


> Science Magazine, AAAS publication:
> Most prior studies have found that substituting biofuels for gasoline will
> reduce greenhouse gases because biofuels sequester carbon through the 
> growth of
> the feedstock. These analyses have failed to count the carbon emissions 
> that
> occur as farmers worldwide respond to higher prices and convert forest and
> grassland to new cropland to replace the grain (or cropland) diverted to
> biofuels. By using a worldwide agricultural model to estimate emissions 
> from land-use
> change, we found that corn-based ethanol, instead of producing a 20% 
> savings,
> nearly doubles greenhouse emissions over 30 years and increases greenhouse
> gases for 167 years. Biofuels from switchgrass, if grown on U.S. corn 
> lands,
> increase emissions by 50%. This result raises concerns about large biofuel
> mandates and highlights the value of using waste products.
>