Studies find biofuels worse for climate change
While biofuels sounded good at first glance, if the Bush administration is pushing them, it’s reasonable to assume it’s not for the public good. According to two studies in the journal Science, the lifecycle carbon emissions resulting from the production of biofuels is greater then that for conventional fuels once land use change is taken into consideration.
The clearance of grassland releases 93 times the amount of greenhouse gas that would be saved by the fuel made annually on that land, said Joseph Fargione, lead author of the second paper, and a scientist at the Nature Conservancy. “So for the next 93 years you’re making climate change worse, just at the time when we need to be bringing down carbon emissions.”