ETHANOL and BIOFUELS

A joint U.S. Department of Energy/U.S. Department of Agriculture study found that 1.3 billion tons of biomass, predominantly cellulosic feedstocks, could be produced for biofuel production in the United States annually with only modest changes in farming practices. This quantity of feedstocks could be used to produce enough biofuel, mostly ethanol, to satisfy about one third of current U.S. petroleum demand. The potential could be even larger if technology is developed to take advantage of additional forms of biomass such as algae. link (The U.S. became the world's largest producer of ethanol fuels in 2005. By 2010 the U.S. produced 13.2 billion gallons of fuel, and including Brazil accounted for 88% of world production that year. Most is produced using corn as feedstock.) However, the Earth Policy Institute reports that the U.S., in a misguided effort to reduce its oil insecurity by converting grain into fuel for cars, is generating global food insecurity on a scale never seen before. link The chief of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has warned that rising food prices around the world have threatened social unrest in developing countries.

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Latest news.

Dec. 26 2011: Federal government finally kills corn ethanol subsidy. After $45 billion in subsidies since 1980, ethanol subsidies end in U.S. The subsidy cut is accompanied by the end of a tariff on the importation of Brazilian ethanol.  Brazil has an excess of sugarcane ethanol, but the U.S. government had previously penalized this fuel stream as a means of allowing U.S. ethanol producers to escape competing on the free market. link   

August 2011: The ethanol industry is due to lose some of its government support more than 30 years after Jimmy Carter first began subsidising corn ethanol to encourage the development of a homegrown plant-based fuel, Congress is expected to end $6bn in subsidies during the debt deal negotiations. The subsidy had been directed to the oil firms which incorporate ethanol into their products. Fuel sold at most US petrol stations contains 10% ethanol. Ten years ago a lot of farmers invested in corn and in ethanol plants and felt that corn farmers have had it pretty good. But a five-year boom in corn ethanol production may be coming to an end, or at least that is the hope of some campaigners. "I think we are at a turning point. We are full to the gills with corn ethanol," said Jeremy Martin, who studies biofuels for the Union of Concerned Scientists. [Iowa, which leads the country in corn production, will use 58% of its crop for ethanol this year.] link

               Below:

•      Technical problems with ethanol as a fuel
•      Other issues including cost and food supply
•      Political factors and subsidies
•      Global ethanol production
•       . . . "if you have to buy gas!"

August 2011: How Europe's biofuels policy threatens the climate.  A report for the European Parliament, which reviewed scientific research in biofuels, including studies undertaken for the European Commission, stated:  “All model exercises show that greenhouse gas emissions  from ILUC (Indirect Land Use Change) caused by increased biofuel demands are significant, and the range of respective results on greenhouse gas emissions  from ILUC is comparatively small.” What has become clear is that when greenhouse gas emissions caused by ILUC are included in the carbon footprint calculation of biofuels, the climate benefits of these fuels compared to conventional fossil fuels can be negligible or even negated. If the ILUC is taken into account, the greenhouse gas emissions from some biodiesels are not lower than the ones from fossil fuels, but higher link     Greenpeace conducted a study between May and June 2011.(Greenpeace study)  

Environmental Protection Agency and E15 decision. E10 was granted a waiver under Clean Air Act section 211(f)(4) more than 30 years ago and is now ubiquitous in the marketplace, making up over 90% of the U.S. gasoline market. E15 is a blend of gasoline with up to 15 vol% ethanol. Prior to EPA's October waiver decision, the amount of ethanol in motor vehicle gasoline was limited to 10 vol% (E10).. As of November 7, 2011, E15 is not registered with EPA and is therefore not legal for distribution or sale as a transportation fuel. link
June 2011: EPA approves E15 despite engine risk. The Environmental Protection Agency previously approved E15 -- 85% gasoline and 15% ethanol -- for use in vehicles back to 2001 models. The approved label is part of the EPA's final rule spelling out about how E15 can be sold and what standards it must meet. E15 isn't available yet. EPA says sellers have to first register their blends with the agency to be sure they meet a number of standards. EPA says tests show E15 won't harm 2001 and newer vehicles, which have hoses and gaskets and seals specially designed to resist corrosive ethanol. But using E15 fuel in older vehicles or in power equipment such as mowers, chainsaws and boats, can cause damage and now is literally a federal offense. link
Renewable Energy World's view of the E15 decision here.

May 2010: Higher-ethanol blend will cause problems in many cars. The EPA is expected to issue a rule in the next few weeks that would permit oil companies to increase the percentage of ethanol in automotive fuel to 15%, up from the current level of 10%, so they can meet EPA quotas for renewable fuels. Automakers have opposed the change since the EPA first signaled it last year. But now the industry says it has conducted tests that confirm the higher-ethanol blend will cause problems in many cars. Half of the engines tested so far have had some problems, said C. Coleman Jones, the biofuel implementation manager at GM, speaking for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. link

April 2010: EU says biofuels can cause four times more carbon emissions. 
The European Union, including the UK, has set a goal of obtaining 10% of its road fuels from renewable sources by 2020. But a new report commissioned in Brussels found some biofuels can lead to four times more carbon dioxide polluting the atmosphere than equivalent fossil fuels. Biofuels have already been criticised for causing food shortages in countries where land for rice or wheat has been displaced by fields of soy beans or sugarcane for fuel. Environmental campaigners say the latest report proves the renewable energy source is also bad for climate change. link

Bio-fuels: Biofuel production could actually double the amount of greenhouse gas emissions. While it is clear we need to reduce fossil fuel consumption, research shows that we could reduce global warming pollution two to nine times more by conserving or restoring forests and grasslands than by razing them and turning them into biofuels plantations. US Government support is projected to reach around  $13 billion in 2008 and almost $16 billion by 2014. Money that could instead fund critical research into conservation and efficiency and proven solutions. link

April 2010: Corn ethanol mandates based on shaky assumptions. Federal renewable fuel mandates have created an industry around corn ethanol that now consumes nearly a third of the U.S. corn crop. But what is the rationale behind those mandates in the first place? Several scientists have asked and found the answers to be unsound. The EPA's own analysis shows that, in the near term, natural-gas-powered, dry-milled corn ethanol production results in an increase of greenhouse gas emissions of 12 to 33% compared to gasoline. link

Earth Policy Institute: The US, in a misguided effort to reduce its oil insecurity by converting grain into fuel for cars, is generating global food insecurity on a scale never seen before. link The chief of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has warned that rising food prices around the world have threatened social unrest in developing countries.

Biofuels cause global warming.  Almost all biofuels used today cause more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels if the full emissions costs of producing these “green” fuels are taken into account, two studies being published in the journal "Science" have concluded. While ethanol and other biofuels have long been touted as a means of reducing greenhouse gas levels, it turns out that they have precisely the opposite effect because of some unintended consequences. link

April 2011: Biofuels could kill 192,000+ per year in developing countries. World Bank research indicates that the increase in biofuel production over 2004 levels would push more than 35 million additional people into absolute poverty in 2010 in developing countries. Using statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO), estimates indicate that this would lead to at least 192,000 excess deaths per year, plus disease resulting in the loss of 6.7 million disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) per year. These exceed the estimated annual toll of 141,000 deaths and 5.4 million lost DALYs that the World Health Organization attributes to global warming. Thus, developed world policies intended to mitigate global warming probably have increased death and disease in developing countries rather than reducing them. link  

July 2011: Switching from corn to grass would raise ethanol output and cur emissions. Growing perennial grasses on the least productive farmland now used for corn ethanol production in the U.S. would result in higher overall corn yields, more ethanol output per acre and better groundwater quality, researchers report in a new study. The switch would also slash emissions of two potent greenhouse gases - Carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide. link

Why cellulosic ethanol and other biofuels are not sustainable.    
Alice Friedemann writes that erosion is happening ten to twenty times faster than the rate topsoil can be formed by natural processes and in most places on earth, only six inches from desolation, for that is the thickness of the topsoil layer upon which the entire life of the planet depends. Fuels from biomass are not sustainable, are ecologically destructive, have a net energy loss, and there isn’t enough biomass in America to make significant amounts of energy because essential inputs like water, land, fossil fuels, and phosphate ores are limited. Iowa has some of the best topsoil in the world. In the past century, half of it’s been lost, from an average of 18 to 10 inches deep. Productivity drops off sharply when topsoil reaches 6 inches or less, the average crop root zone depth. Loss of topsoil has been a major factor in the fall of civilizations. You end up with a country like Iraq, formerly Mesopotamia, where 75% of the farm land became a salt desert.  link     

August 2011: The ethanol industry is due to lose some of its government support more than 30 years after Jimmy Carter first began subsidising corn ethanol to encourage the development of a homegrown plant-based fuel, Congress is expected to end $6bn in subsidies during the debt deal negotiations. The subsidy had been directed to the oil firms which incorporate ethanol into their products. Fuel sold at most US petrol stations contains 10% ethanol. Ten years ago a lot of farmers invested in corn and in ethanol plants and felt that corn farmers have had it pretty good. But a five-year boom in corn ethanol production may be coming to an end, or at least that is the hope of some campaigners. "I think we are at a turning point. We are full to the gills with corn ethanol," said Jeremy Martin, who studies biofuels for the Union of Concerned Scientists. [Iowa, which leads the country in corn production, will use 58% of its crop for ethanol this year.] link

July 2011: Ethanol - government largesse with taxpayer dollars. Ethanol made from fermented corn starch plays a more prosaic role in the U.S. these days, making up some 10% of national passenger vehicle fuel. In fact, in 2010 the U.S. took roughly 40% of the national corn crop and turned it into roughly 50 billion liters of the alcohol fuel. That's up from roughly 190 million liters a year in 1979 and just 13.6 billion liters as recently as 2005. Between 1980 and 2000 the U.S. government has devoted some $19 billion in tax breaks alone to the ethanol-from-corn effort, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Expensive subsidies. In 2006, subsidies totaled  $7 billion for less than 5 billion gallons.    A windfall profit for corporate agribusinesses such as ADM. link The economics of corn ethanol have never made much sense. Rather than importing cheap Brazilian ethanol made from sugar cane, the United States slaps a tariff of 54 cents a gallon on ethanol from Brazil. Then the government provides a tax break of 51 cents a gallon to American ethanol producers - on top of the generous subsidies that corn growers already receive under the farm program.

July 2010: Corn ethanol subsidy may be halted. Efforts to continue a lucrative tax subsidy to the corn ethanol industry, a long-time golden child in Washington, are failing in the face of mounting evidence that it may not be worth the money. The 45-cent-per-gallon credit, which is set to expire in December 2010, didn't make it into the current Senate bill focusing on the oil spill. Earlier legislation would have preserved the subsidy for five years at an annual cost of up to $6 billion. House alternatives would keep it at 36 cents for just one year. Environmental groups argue the tax credit has funneled $21 billion to oil companies. link

February 2010: EPA changes conclusions on ethanol. The EPA issued a new rule requiring U.S. companies to produce at least 13 billion gallons of renewable fuels in 2010, up from about 11.1 billion gallons in 2009,  Thirteen billion gallons is about 9% of overall U.S. fuel consumption. Congress has set a goal of 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel by 2022. Based on the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act which required renewable fuels’ lifecycle emissions to be at least 20% less than gasoline's it appeared then that corn-based ethanol wouldn’t make the cut. An early EPA review calculated that, with greenhouse gases from indirect land-use changes included, most corn ethanol wasn't much better than regular gas. The EPA has now finalized the renewable fuel standard, with agency Administrator Lisa Jackson announcing that corn ethanol will qualify after all. The percentages are even higher for advanced biofuels, at 50% less, and 60% less for cellulosic biofuels.

Production of cellulosic ethanol, such as from wood chips and plant waste, was supposed to hit 100 million gallons by 2010 but is only about 6.5 million gallons now. Advanced biofuels such as algae are in their infancy. Instead, the bulk of today's biofuel is corn ethanol.  link      

January 2007: President Bush's State of the Union message vowed to increase the supply of alternative fuels by setting a mandatory fuels standard to require 35 billion gallons of renewable and alternative fuels in 2017 with the emphasis on ethanol from corn. Besides evidence of catastrophic consequences to the world's food supplies and prices there is a danger in ethanol use for vehicles. Mark Jacobson, an atmospheric scientist at Stanford University in California, says studies found that using E85 will cause at least as much health damage as gasoline, which already causes about 10,000 premature deaths annually from ozone and particulate matter.  link

Corn prices aren't stable to provide a secure source of alternative fuel. At $5 a bushel it's considered high enough to scare potential builders of ethanol factories. It was under $2 in 2006: in June 2008 Corn prices surged to a record with some contracts briefly topping $8 a bushel for the first time as traders bet that a major swath of this year's corn crop will be lost to Midwest flooding. link  An additional problem is the difficulty of shipping ethanol through traditional pipelines because traces of water and other impurities in pipelines cause separation of ethanol-gasoline blends which can reduce engine performance. link  [As of November 2011 the price is around $6.50 a bushel - rates link.]

February 2011: The Global Renewable Fuels Alliance (GRFA) released its global annual ethanol production forecast that ethanol production in 2011 would hit hit 88.7 billion litres (23.5 million U.S. gallons) replacing the need for one million barrels of crude oil per day worldwide, highlighting the growing impact that ethanol production is having on reducing the world's reliance on crude oil. The United States continues to be the largest ethanol producer in the world with production levels expected to reach over 51 billion litres (13.5 U.S. gallons) in 2011. The African continent is forecast to produce 170 million litres of ethanol in 2011, despite sub-Saharan Africa having one billion hectares of rain fed, crop producing land that could be producing biomass for ethanol according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. link

Socially responsible rankings for gas stations: June 2010 -  BP has been downgraded to a D. As of mid-June 2010 new rankings have been applied where no company qualifies for an A rating.  Check other companies here.   Sunoco is still highest ranked at B+

An up-to-date report from the Sierra Club also ranks Sunoco high and reports on other companies giving BP a "dishonorable mention" based on the Deepwater Horizon leak. Finally you can read "Which is the most ethical oil company?"  here