Biofuels Will Aid Warming
Clearing land to produce biofuels such as ethanol will do more to exacerbate global warming than using gasoline or other fossil fuels, two scientific studies show.The independent analyses, which will be published today in the journal Science, could force policymakers in the United States and Europe to reevaluate incentives they have adopted to spur production of ethanol-based fuels. President Bush and many members of Congress have touted expanding biofuel use as an integral element of the nation’s battle against climate change, but these studies suggest that this strategy will damage the planet rather than help protect it.
This doesn’t apply as much to some of the methanol applications that use waste biomass, a much smarter alternative anyway.
I find this difficult to follow.
To my knowledge, none of the proposed “green” fuels (ethanol, methanol) reduce or remove the emmission of CO2 as a by-product of their use. They might have a higher “unit energy per carbon unit” output. From the figures I have seen that return might be marginal at best - 5% or so.
How does “bio-mass fuel” (and yes I know what it is) make any great difference - other than by reducing the use of mineral oil?
That difference is not, I suggest, making any great difference to carbon emission.
It does make a strategic difference to fuel availability but that does nothing for climate change.