More Facts about Biofuels and Greenhouse Gases Surface after Energy Bill Becomes Law

“The new study from the Nature Conservancy and University of Minnesota only proves that hasty political action can sometimes have the opposite effect of what was originally intended.”

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Charles T. Drevna, President of NPRA, the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association, one day after testifying before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to express NPRA’s concerns with the biofuel provisions of the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act, noted a study published just hours after the hearing by the Nature Conservancy and University of Minnesota that highlighted the significant negative impacts of land clearing for biofuel production and the resulting “biofuel carbon debt.”

“The analyses suggests [sic] that biofuels produced on converted lands could, for long periods of time, be greater net emitters of greenhouse gasses than the fossil fuels they typically displace.”

“We’ve consistently called attention to the unintended consequences of building up a mandatory reliance on biofuels,” Drevna said. “The new study from the Nature Conservancy and University of Minnesota only proves that hasty political action can sometimes have the opposite effect of what was originally intended. In some cases, as this study suggests, biofuels could ultimately result in more greenhouse gas emissions than the fossil fuels they were intended to replace. Calling the study ‘simplistic,’ as biofuel interests have, doesn’t eliminate the inconvenient truth or change the facts about ethanol and greenhouse gases.”

Highlights from the Nature Conservancy’s “Major Findings” Summary

• “Converting rainforests, peatlands, savannas, or grasslands to produce biofuels in Brazil, Southeast Asia, and the United States creates a ‘biofuel carbon debt’ by releasing 17 to 420 times more carbon dioxide than the fossil fuels they replace.”
• “For US Central grassland on farmland that has been enrolled in the United States Conservation Reserve Program for 15 years, converting it to corn ethanol production creates a biofuel carbon debt that would take approximately 48 years to repay.”
• “The analyses suggests [sic] that biofuels produced on converted lands could, for long periods of time, be greater net emitters of greenhouse gasses than the fossil fuels they typically displace.”
• “For current or developing biofuel technologies, any strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that causes land conversion from native ecosystems to cropland is likely to be counterproductive.”

The full summary can be found at www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/features/art23844.html.

NPRA members include more than 450 companies, including virtually all US refiners and petrochemical manufacturers. Our members supply consumers with a wide variety of products and services used daily in their homes and businesses. These products include gasoline, diesel fuel, home heating oil, jet fuel, lubricants and the chemicals that serve as "building blocks" in making everything from plastics to clothing to medicine to computers.