Energy Choices: Biofuels

Finding ways to reduce fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions while producing enough energy to support economic development worldwide is this century’s preeminent challenge. We must meet this challenge while simultaneously reducing environmental degradation, poverty and hunger. The United States must make a sustained commitment to invest in and develop renewable energy sources that contribute to meeting these challenges.

But our renewable energy policy is seriously off-track. Over three-quarters of the tax credits the federal government provides for renewable energy goes to corn ethanol. This despite growing evidence that corn ethanol won’t make a dent in fossil fuel use, does little to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and threatens our soil, water and wildlife habitat.

There is some hope that a new generation of biofuels produced from grasses or trees can be a sustainable solution, but our current policy works against better biofuels.

Building a future economy based on renewable energy is absolutely critical to our country and our children. We need to overhaul our biofuels policies now to rescue any hope that sustainable biofuels will be part of that future.