Corn Ethanol Is Not Smart Bioenergy Period

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The Union of Concerned Scientists recently wrote me about an issue that has been discussed on these pages and at my other blog. Rushing to Expand Corn Ethanol Is Not Smart Bioenergy. I responded as requested. I am of the opinion that using food for energy is not smart regardless of the environmental issues. This just adds another level of concern. Although this to my mind seems obvious, it apparently needs to be addressed to prevent our governments from making a egregious mistake. I shortened both request and response to keep the post a reasonable size.

Contact the EPA today

Dear Brian,

The use of gasoline alternatives, such as ethanol, could play a key role in reducing pollution from fuels, but scientific findings show that biofuels can also increase pollution when done wrong.

The ethanol industry, however, does not want science to interfere with their expansion plans. Producers want immediate permission to increase the amount of ethanol they can blend into regular gasoline before government tests are complete to determine if this could be a public health risk. The EPA opened a public comment period on this issue through May 16.

Please tell EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to deny the producers' premature request and focus on a comprehensive plan that protects public health while ensuring biofuels contribute to fueling our clean energy future.

Scott Nathanson
National Field Organizer
UCS Clean Vehicles Program



Dear Administrator Jackson,

I urge you to deny the petition allowing blends of 15 percent ethanol (E15) to be permitted for use in traditional gasoline engines.

The The EPA has been coordinating with other agencies to obtain the data required by the Clean Air Act to determine the clean air risks of increased ethanol blending. But the testing will not be competed in time to review it for this request.

It would therefore be premature to approve a waiver for increased ethanol use before a thorough analysis of the public health and environmental impacts of ethanol are completed and brought to the public. With Obama administration committed to a regulatory system informed by science, I urge you to follow these principles and reject this request. I urge the EPA, instead, to focus on a comprehensive plan to protect public health and air quality, while reducing global warming pollution from biofuels.

Related Posts and Links:

• The Darker Side of Biofuel
  
• Good Intentions:Biofuels / Bad Consequences: Worse Than Gasoline And Better As Food?
• European Commission - External Trade - Trade Issues --- Add comment

- Tag: biofuel environment global - Shared By: Brian Dowling 2008-05-21 03:07:26

• Mandelson writes: "The issue is not biofuels or no biofuels, but the right biofuels. Europe's governments have signed a commitment ensuring that 10% of the petrol in Europe's vehicles in 2020 is made from renewable transport fuels, including biofuels. This will make an important contribution to the EU's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote security of energy supply. But there is an obvious caveat: biofuels must be an environmental policy in pursuit of an environmental outcome - the most sustainable policy is the only right policy".

• Food prices | The end of cheap food | Economist.com --- Add comment

- Tag: economics environment - Shared By: Brian Dowling 2008-05-21 03:07:25

• This year biofuels will take a third of America's (record) maize harvest. That affects food markets directly: fill up an SUV's fuel tank with ethanol and you have used enough maize to feed a person for a year. And it affects them indirectly, as farmers switch to maize from other crops. The 30m tonnes of extra maize going to ethanol this year amounts to half the fall in the world's overall grain stocks.

The Darker Side of Biofuel

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Ending hunger is usually the first thing one thinks about when thinking about the Millennium Development Goals. Another important goal is environmental sustainability. What happens when they are put into conflict with each other?

Biofuels: Burning Food? via Allianz Knowledge / Latest Articles on 10/20/08 asks,

Are biofuels responsible for higher food prices and a growing number of hungry people? Terri Raney, senior economist at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), explains the links between food and fuel.

"Biofuels demand is likely to keep basic food commodity prices 10 to 15 percent higher than they would have been otherwise."

Terri Raney, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Business & Human Rights Resource Centre on 10/20/08 introduced us to an even darker side with The Gates of Hell - Jungle takes a look at the lesser known side of the ethanol boom.

My task is to translate, photograph, film and get permission to accompany the Brasilian government's Mobile Group on a rescue mission to release men, women and children being forced to work in sub-human conditions...[by] unscrupulous land owners...since 1995, 30,000 slaves have been freed.

Other earlier posts from my blogs dealing with biofuels have included:

• Good Intentions: Biofuels / Bad Consequences: Worse Than Gasoline And Better As Food?
• Energy And Politics Bio-Fuels And Barack
• Financial Fears * Global Challenges * Some Potential Answers

Financial Fears * Global Challenges * Some Potential Answers

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The Center for Global Development on 10/19/08 wrote about an interview of CGD president Nancy Birdsall by National Public Radio regarding the financial crisis' impact on foreign assistance to poor countries - Experts Fear Financial Crisis Will Hurt World's Poor (National Public Radio).

'When a country is hit by a crisis, there will be a decline in aid in the subsequent couple of years," says Nancy Birdsall, who runs the center, which promotes policies to fight poverty. "There has been a return to trend in the past: Sweden's aid flows declined after its banking crisis in the early '90s, and Japan's aid flows declined when it had its problems in the '90s, but they have come back.'

One of the members of End POVERTY / Fim POBREZA, SpongeBob (likely not his real name) introduced me to this report from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). A "laundry" list of what the IFPRI is calling for covers a number of the Millennium Development Goals. The report and information on the IFPRI itself is provided below. The challenges raised by the IFPRI are only made greater by the outlook from the Center For Global Development. Even obtaining the most hopeful of outcomes in the American elections could still potentially mean a diminishing of the United State's future role, at least for a time, though it will likely be greater than what exists currently.

• The Challenge of Hunger 2008

  diigo tags: hunger, mdgs, mdg, GHI

  Combating the food crisis will require
  
  1. More food aid for poor people;
  2. Much greater investments in agriculture - especially the small farm sector;
  3. More investment in social protection programs and social sectors - education & health;
  4. Reforms to create a fair world trading system;
  5. Changes to biofuel policies;
  6. Measures to calm global food markets;
  7. Better data collection and improved monitoring of the food and nutrition situation;
  8. More support for nongovernmental organizations that work on behalf of poor people in developing countries.

• The 2008 Global Hunger Index (GHI) shows that the world has made slow progress in reducing food insecurity since 1990, with dramatic differences among regions and countries. In the nearly two decades since 1990, some regions — South and Southeast Asia, the Near East and North Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean — have made significant headway in improving food security. Nevertheless, the GHI remains high in South Asia. The GHI is similarly high in Sub-Saharan Africa, where progress has been marginal since 1990.

• About the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

  tags: ifpri, hunger, mdg, mdgs

  • IFPRI's Mission: To Provide Policy Solutions That Reduce Poverty and End Hunger and Malnutrition

    This mission flows from the CGIAR mission: "To achieve sustainable food security and reduce poverty in developing countries through scientific research and research-related activities in the fields of agriculture, livestock, forestry, fisheries, policy, and natural resources management."

  • Two key premises underlie IFPRI's mission:

    1. Sound and appropriate local, national, and international public policies are essential to achieving sustainable food security and nutritional improvement.
    
    
    2. Research and the dissemination of its results are critical inputs into the process of raising the quality of food policy debate and formulating sound and appropriate policies.

SciDev.Net , found below under Global News Sources, on 10/16/08 provided three essays, published by the same International Food Policy Research Institute, offering if not final answers to the food crisis then insightful perspectives on the global food crisis and how to deal with it.

Joachim von Braun, director-general of IFPRI, discusses high priority policy responses including: expanding emergency responses and humanitarian aid; freezing biofuel production; eradicating export bans and investing in rural infrastructure and agricultural research.

Josette Sheeran, executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP), discusses WFP activities, including their food-for-assets programme used to train local populations, school feeding for around 20 million children and disaster-preparedness activities including canal-building and river bed restoration. Sheeran calls for more agricultural research and higher investment across the value chain.

Namanga Ngongi, president of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, discusses the policy implications of high food prices for Africa. Policies are needed, he says, to create sustainable food production driven by advances in productivity rather than by expansion of cultivated area.