'Serious' Error Found in Carbon Savings for Biofuels

'Serious' Error Found in Carbon Savings for Biofuels

By JAMES KANTERat Green

 

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/serious-error-found-in-carbon-savings-for-biofuels/

Environmental Working Group urges Congressional Super Committee to cut “environmentally destructive - and very profitable-” corn ethanol subsidies

Environmental Working Group urges Congressional Super Committee to cut “environmentally destructive- and very profitable” corn ethanol subsidies.

See :  http://www.ewg.org/release/shortchanging-human-health-and-environment-won-t-trim-swollen-deficit

"It’s also clear that lavish government support for polluting industries like oil and corn ethanol and lax regulations take a toll on human health and the environment."

Someone has ask me to respond to NRDC's Luke Tonachel response to my response. I can't do it on his blog because he closed his comment section.

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/ltonachel/new_study_clean_fuels_are_good.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+switchboard_all+%28Switchboard%3A+Blogs+from+NRDC%27s+Environmental+Experts%29

 

Mr. Tonachel writes, "non-food biomass is available in the region for fuel production" Of course, there is non-food biomass pretty much everywhere but no one has been able to turn it into commercially viable fuel in spite of years of investing lots of tax dollars into creating cellulosic ethanol. Several cellulosic plants have gone bankrupt, millions and millions of taxpayers dollars have been wasted, and still no cellulosic ethanol.

 

Luke Tonachel continues "You only have to search NRDC’s blogs for “ethanol” to see that we share your concern about corn ethanol" Again, of course, I know that NRDC shares my concern about corn ethanol. I have been advocating against corn ethanol for a long time. But I also know that NRDC has been advocating for celluloslic ethanol for a long time since, at least 2004 or earlier, correct? (http://www.e2.org/ext/doc/SecuringAmerica.pdf%20)It  It is now 2011, there is no celluslosic ethanol, and meanwhile, a lot of corn ethanol has been used and wrecked havoc on the environment and food security. So maybe putting in place another mandate for a non-existent clean fuel  and advocating (as you have) 

that "biofuel manufacturing facilities need to be built" is not a good idea. How many more abandoned industrial sites (often on what was once farmland) do we need?

END OF ETHANOL CHARADE... Karen Hosler at The Baltimore Sun

 Karen Hosler at Baltimore Sun

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-08-29/news/bs-ed-ethanol-20110829_1_ethanol-subsidies-corn-based-ethanol-corn-production

Philadelphia Inquirer/Andrew Maykuth "Who'll be left holding the bag in PA ethanol plants demise?"

The ethanol mess Governor Rendell left behind......

"The state agreed to support the $270 million project with $27 million in grants and loans and by issuing $67 million in tax-free bonds."

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20110828_Who_ll_be_left_holding_the_bag_in_Pa__ethanol_plant_s_demise_.html?viewAll=y

So much corruption surrounding ethanol! Former PA Gov. Rendell was a biofuels cheerleader even though he had been warned that ethanol has serious environmental problems— inefficiency, land use issues, waterway pollution, food security/inflation, etc.  He continued to called this particular plant “the future of energy in Pennsylvania” while he was being provided multiple reports on the problems with ethanol and petitions signed by taxpayers to stop ethanol in Pennsylvania.

So Pennsylvania’s first ethanol plant, only a few years old and supported by millions of dollars taxpayer of money, is now an abandoned industrial site. Will it become another “brownfield” that will have to be cleaned up with more taxpayer dollars?

Meanwhile, The World Bank, Oxfam, U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, and others have been implicating corn ethanol as a factor in the rising cost of food, and famine.

Response to Luke Tonachel's NRDC Blog on Clean Fuel Standards http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/ltonachel/new_study_clean_fuels_are_good.html

Theoretically, the Clean Fuel Standards sounds great but “advanced biofuels” do not exist.  So it is likely that the standard will be largely met with corn ethanol with all its serious environmental problems— inefficiency, land use issues, waterway pollution, food security/inflation, etc. 

The World Bank, Oxfam, U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, and others have been implicating corn ethanol as a factor in the rising cost of food, and famine.

http://e360.yale.edu/digest/rising_food_costs_compounding_east_african_famine_world_bank_says/3085/

http://www.oxfam.org/en/grow/food-price-volatility-map

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/04/25/the_new_geopolitics_of_food

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=ethanol-domestic-fuel-supply-or-environmental-boondoggle&page=3

Your comment that ”biofuel manufacturing facilities need to be built” should be examined in light of Pennsylvania’s biofuels history.  Former PA Gov. Rendell was a biofuels cheerleader.

http://www.cglg-australia.org/news_files/News%20Release%20-%20PA%20-%20Clearfield%20Ethanol%20plant%20to%20be%20one%20of%20nations%20largest%20-%20March%2013%202008.pdf

Pennsylvania  1st ethanol plant, Bionol/Clearfield, only a few years old and supported by $17.4 million of taxpayer money , is now an abandoned industrial site. http://www.theprogressnews.com/default.asp?read=27593

And it continues…. PA Gov. Corbett is giving $8.75 million for a biofuels plant to two organizations, Perdue and LCSWMA(Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority), both, recently involved in failed biofuels initiatives (Perdue a plant and LCSWMA two proposed plants).

 "A major unsecured creditor is Perdue Grain & Oilseed, an affiliate of chicken company Perdue Farms Inc. that is owed approximately $9.4 million. Last October, Perdue Grain said in a statement that it struck a deal to supply Bionol Clearfield with 40 million bushels of corn and to sell the grains that are a byproduct of the company's ethanol production."(Wall Street Journal Dow Jones Financial Information Services7/21/11)

LCSWMA wasted lots of citizen/taxpayer time and money trying to put two ethanol plants on farmland on the banks of the Susquehanna River.

So it looks like Gov.Corbett is continuing Gov. Rendell’s pattern of supporting “green jobs” that are not really “green.” And maybe the Clean Fuel Standards would work if biofuels, especially corn ethanol, were not considered clean fuels

Yale Environment 360(Yale Forestry&EnviroStudies Publication) reports Ethanol and Rising Food Prices contributing to Horn of Africa Crisis

e360 digest

16 Aug 2011: Rising Food Costs Compounding
East African Famine, World Bank Says

The volatility of global food prices has contributed to the growing humanitarian tragedy in the Horn of Africa and will continue to keep the world’s poorest populations on the edge of starvation, according to a new report by the World Bank. While the emergency was triggered by prolonged drought conditions, near-record prices for staple crops such as maize, sugar, and wheat have compounded the situation, the Food Price Watch report says. According to the report, global food prices overall are nearing the record levels of 2008 and remain 33 percent higher than last summer, with the price of maize 84 percent higher, and wheat prices up 62 percent. “Persistently high food prices and low food stocks indicate that we’re still in the danger zone, with the most vulnerable people the least able to cope,” World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick said in a statement. About 29,000 children under the age of five have died in Somalia in the last three months, and 600,000 more children across the region remain at risk. Contributing to the rising prices, the report warns, is the extensive use of agricultural lands for biofuel production, specifically the U.S.’s corn ethanol sector.

http://e360.yale.edu/digest/rising_food_costs_compounding_east_african_famine_world_bank_says/3085/