Clean Air Task Force Report Urges Caution about New Congressional Biofuels Mandate

Washington, D.C., October 22, 2007 -- Congress should slow down and consider the potential adverse consequences before it rushes ahead with a plan to dramatically increase mandated use of biofuels, according to a new report by the non-profit Clean Air Task Force.

The Boston-based environmental research group reported today that similar mandates in the European Union have led to unanticipated environmental problems including an increase in greenhouse gas emissions. "Due to tropical deforestation driven by the EU's biofuels policy, the biofuels in use in Europe can be as much as 8 times worse than petroleum based fuels when it come to greenhouse gas emissions," said Jonathan Lewis, CATF staff attorney and author of the report.

"Congress should look before it leaps to enact any new biofuels mandate," Lewis added.

The report, Leaping Before They Looked, Lessons from Europe's Experience with the 2003 Biofuels Directive, was released as Congress considers energy legislation, including mandating use of up to 36 billion gallons of "renewable" fuels a year nearly a five-fold increase in the 7.5 billion gallon amount that Congress mandated in earlier energy legislation. The Bush administration is also planning to boost use of biofuels through a regulation expected in late 2008.

Lewis noted that "although plans to boost biofuel production and use may be well- intentioned, we ought to consider Europe's experience before racing ahead." The EU mandated use of biofuels in part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But the strategy backfired. In addition to increasing greenhouse gases, the EU mandate has promoted tropical deforestation and biodiversity loss as well as increased competition for food, water, land, and other resources in developed and developing countries, the report found.

"The EU experience provides a cautionary tale to further expansion of currently available biofuels," Lewis continued.

It notes that while tropical deforestation is occurring at a staggering rate in many countries seeking to produce biofuels for the new and growing markets, the destruction of boggy peatlands in Southeast Asia now represents one of the leading sources of global warming emissions worldwide. The conversion from peatlands to palm oil plantations releases the equivalent of 8% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuel use, making Indonesia the 3rd ranking emitter of CO2, behind only the US and China.

These unintended consequences - though not all unanticipated - highlight the need for updated, comprehensive tools to analyze the true net impacts of policies that increase biofuels use, the report concludes. It notes that current life-cycle analyses do not account for greenhouse gas emissions and other global warming impacts that may be caused by changes in land use; food, fuel, and materials markets; and impacts and demand for natural resources such as water.

"Until we develop these tools to inform policy development," Lewis said, "we should be extremely cautious about ramping up biofuels use so we don't repeat mistakes made elsewhere."

The new report can be found online at www.catf.us

Founded in 1996, the Clean Air Task Force (CATF) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring clean air and healthy environments through scientific research, public education, and legal advocacy.

Source: Clean Air Task Force (CATF)

Bookmark/Search this post with:

 •    •    •    •    •    •    •    •    •    •