Congressional Mandates

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.