"Ethanol’s Broken Promise" EWG

 "Between 2008 and 2011, American farmers converted 23 million acres of wetlands and grasslands – an area the size of Indiana – to crop production.  EWG’s analysis estimates that this massive transformation in the way the land is being used has resulted in greenhouse gas emissions of between 85 million and 236 million metric tons a year more than previous years.

It turns out that corn ethanol has actually accelerated global warming more than gasoline. Recent research by the EPA has estimated that ethanol production increases greenhouse gas emissions by 33 percent, compared to gasoline."

http://www.ewg.org/agmag/2014/05/ethanol-s-broken-promise

"High Food Prices: An Investor's Dilemma" Forbes

"Finally, there’s the inflation part of the story. Prices at the grocery store are rising fast. The meat, poultry, fish, and eggs component of CPI has risen 25.6% in seven years, which represents 3.66% per year on average. The meat component has the highest weight (by far) in the CPI Food index."

"It hurts! High prices weigh on consumers, many of whom are unemployed or underemployed. Personal incomes are not growing, tax rates have risen along with costs for everything from rent to fuel to food. Don’t expect a consumer led improvement in the economy."

"The following chart shows the extraordinary relationship between the RFS and crop prices. We’ll focus on corn because it’s so important to the food supply. The price of corn was stable – between $2.00 a bushel and $2.50 per bushel – for 50 years until George Bush signed the Energy Policy Act in 2005. That blew the first air into the food price bubble we see today.

When the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 passed, officially establishing subsidies and the ambitious, escalating mandate, prices marched to all time highs. As you can see, they took a breather for the “Great Recession” before racing, yet again, to fresh highs as the drought of 2012 hit. Again, droughts come and go, but when 40% of the supply is diverted away from food production…well, corn prices peaked that year at $8.25 per bushel, a nearly 400% increase above their long-term average."

http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomaslandstreet/2014/06/03/high-food-prices-an-investors-dilemma/

"Switch from gasoline to ethanol linked to higher smog levels" LA TImes

"Scientists have made a surprising discovery about ethanol: The more it was used by drivers in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the more ozone they measured in the local environment.

The finding, reported this week in Nature Geoscience, is contrary to other studies predicting that increased use of ethanol would cut levels of ground-level ozone, or smog."

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-ethanol-ozone-levels-brazil-20140501-story.html#page=1

"Biofuels do more harm than good, UN warns" The Telegraph

"The United Nations will officially warn that growing crops to make “green” biofuel harms the environment and drives up food prices, The Telegraph can disclose.

A leaked draft of a UN report condemns the widespread use of biofuels made from crops as a replacement for petrol and diesel. It says that biofuels, rather than combating the effects of global warming, could make them worse."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/10716756/Biofuels-do-more-harm-than-good-UN-warns.html

"Biofuels Might Hold Back Progress Combating Climate Change" Scientific American

"The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has for the first time acknowledged the risks of uncontrolled biofuels development, a skepticism that has slowly emerged into the mainstream scientific community, say academics."

"A table from the report was leaked last week in which authors list the potential negative risks of development. These issues include indirect land-use change, the conflicts between land for fuels and land for food, water scarcity, loss of biodiversity and nitrogen pollution through the use of excess fertilizer."


http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/biofuels-might-hold-back-progress-combating-climate-change/

"Ethanol Mandates Put The Squeeze on Small Businesses"

"The National Academy of Sciences also found that ethanol creates more greenhouse gas emissions than standard gasoline."

http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/ethanol-mandates-put-the-squeeze-on-small-businesses/

"Tom Tanton: Making ethanol is wasting California's water"

"A biorefinery that produces 100 million gallons of ethanol per year uses the equivalent of the water supply for a town of about 5,000 people — approximately the size of such Central Valley farming communities as Fowler, Gustine and San Joaquin. All in all, it takes 34 times the amount of water to produce one gallon of corn-based ethanol as regular gasoline. Ethanol's water utilization rate doesn't seem to fall in line with the idea of a "renewable fuel." All this water lost and for what gain? The answer is not much for our environment nor for California food producers. The Environmental Protection Agency's analysis has shown that lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of corn ethanol were higher than those of gasoline in 2012 and will still be higher in 2017. Moreover, from 2008 to 2011, the mandate has contributed to plowing up more than 23 million acres of wetlands and grasslands — an area the size of Indiana — to grow crops, largely corn. This rapid conversion is driving up greenhouse gas emissions even higher by releasing carbon stored in the soil and by increasing use of fertilizers that swell emissions of nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas.

What's more: As more and more corn is diverted to ethanol production to meet the RFS, less is available for livestock feed. High demand for corn on account of the RFS has caused extreme price volatility for this key commodity, forcing prices through the roof and at one point increasing prices up by more than 200% from pre-RFS years. Elevated corn costs drove prices for feed — the single largest input cost to food producers — up by 32% in 2012, increasing production costs for food producers across the state. This proved a deal breaker for many of them in the first year of California's drought, which saw countless farmers forced into foreclosure. Just look at the California dairy industry that has been forced to slash herd sizes and lost hundreds of farms since 2012."

http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/02/13/3769036/making-ethanol-is-wasting-californias.html

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/02/13/3769036/making-ethanol-is-wasting-californias.html#storylink=cpy