Since President Bush’s 2007 State of the Union speech, congress has promoted biofuels voraciously. Unfortunately, these mandates have not always recognized the severe environmental impact that biofuels could have both here in the US and abroad.
Friends of the Earth, along with several leading environmental groups, urged Congress to reconsider the biofuels production mandates passed in last year’s federal energy bill, arguing that an overemphasis on "food-to-fuel" technologies like corn ethanol has caused significant environmental damage while driving up food prices. The groups cited the over-use of pesticides and water, deforestation, and the poisoning of the Chesapeake Bay as just some of reasons for waiving the mandate until the effects of biofuels production can be better understood.
Joint Press Release and Open Letter | Open Letter (pdf)
The Renewable Fuels Standard in the Energy Independence Security Act of 2007 mandates a massive, fivefold increase of biofuels use over previous legislation. Friends of the Earth strongly advocated for the inclusion of strong environmental safeguards for any biofuels mandate.
Friends of the Earth was instrumental in implementing strong safeguards against global warming pollution from biofuels in the Renewable Fuels, including a 20 percent reduction for conventional biofuels, 50 percent reduction for "advanced" biofuels and 60 percent reduction for cellulosic biofuels. The mandatory reductions of greenhouse gas emissions over a gasoline baseline have been included in the RFS It is also reassuring that the calculation of greenhouse gas emissions will quantify both direct and indirect emissions from land use conversion. However, around 13 billion gallons of corn ethanol will be grandfathered, and not have to pass these emissions standards.
Additionally, we are still very concerned that the most basic environmental safeguards and a strong antibacksliding mandate to protect air quality have been removed from the final version of the bill. The renewable fuels standard's massive ramp-up in biofuels production may very well cause immense environmental damage without these minimal environmental safeguards and the weak anti-backsliding mandate will do little to curb these problems.
Fact sheet on Biofuels Imports | Our Joint Letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi
In December, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee reported out of full committee the "Lieberman Warner Climate Security Act of 2008." If signed into law, this bill would establish a federal cap and trade system to reduce U.S. global warming pollution. While the bill is creating much needed congressional debate on global warming, it contains serious flaws. In many cases, this bill would encourage the production of energy that could actually increase global warming emissions, such as transportation fuels from agriculturally produced cellulosic biomass.
