Virginia Clean Cities and the Hampton Roads Clean Cities Coalition

Two papers on how biofuels impact carbon dioxide pollution caused quite a commotion when news organizations published stories about the reports, which first appeared Feb. 7 in Science Express, an early on-line version of Science Magazine. Can it be true that clearing land to grow corn and soybeans can release so much carbon dioxide that it would take up to 420 years to pay back the carbon debt, using the relatively small annual air quality benefits that result from using the biofuels instead of petroleum? Or did the authors of the attention-getting papers use obsolete data and unscientific methods to reach far-fetched and speculative conclusions?

We are too smart to answer those questions with a simple yes or no, and not nearly clever enough to boil down the very complicated truth to a sound bite. Instead, we have assembled the following reading materials for those of you who really want to know. This includes the recently released DOE’s Office of Biomass formal response to the reports.

We bought the papers from Science Magazine for $10 each, but had to promise not to distribute or post them to a website. You can buy them yourself here.

Below are some articles further discussing the findings of this report, as well as some responses from folks like Dr. Michael Wang, Dr. Bruce Dale and Dr. David Morris. The DOE Office of Biomass recently released a response, too.

• DOE Office of Biomass response
• New York Times article
• Washington Post article
• Response by Dr. Michael Wang of Argonne National Labs
• Response by Dr. Bruce Dale of Michigan State University
• Response by Dr. David Morris of Institute for Local Self-Reliance

The title alone is a mouthful: “An Act to move the United States toward greater energy independence and security, to increase the production of clean renewable fuels, to protect consumers, to increase the efficiency of products, buildings, and vehicles, to promote research on and deploy greenhouse gas capture and storage options, and to improve the energy performance of the Federal Government, and for other purposes.” Also known as the Energy Bill of 2007, Public Law 110-140, H.R. 6, is an omnibus energy policy law that consists mainly of provisions designed to increase energy efficiency and the availability of renewable energy.
Here is a link to the Library of Congress-Thomas, where you can view or download summaries, related bills, history and the full text:
• http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:h.r.00006:

Here is a Congressional Research Service summary of EISA, a look by CRS at the
environmental impacts of growing the feedstock from biofuels, and a PowerPoint by the U.S. Department of Energy Biomass Program that distills the key provisions of EISA and the energy provisions of the Farm Bill:
• CRS EISA Summary
• CRS report on issues related to an expansion of the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS)
• U.S. DOE Biomass Program presentation: "Overview of U.S. Energy Policies" (has info on Farm Bill Energy Title)

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality recently posted new guidance material introducing the environmental regulatory obligations concerning biodiesel production. Visit the DEQ site to download this excellent primer or download here

http://www.deq.state.va.us/osba/new.html