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March 20, 2009
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Are biofuels potentially more damaging to the environment than traditional fossil fuels? I'm wondering because of the expansion of farmed land, increase in pesticides, and increase in erosion that might result from demand for biofuel.
— Liv
Portland, Oregon
 Unfortunately, environmentalists are learning all too well that the road to hell is indeed paved with good intentions--even when they're driving a biofuel-powered car on it.
This is especially the case with corn-based ethanol, which one recent University of Minnesota study concluded could be worse for the planet than fossil fuel. Without sounding too much like a poor man's Michael Pollan, I'll present the arguments.
First there's the impact of growing the corn itself. Its production is extremely water-intensive, putting a strain on our aquifers. It's eroding the fertile soils of the Midwest at an alarming rate. It uses more petroleum-based fertilizer than any other crop in the country, and too much of that phosphorus drains into the Mississippi, and then on to the Gulf of Mexico, where massive swaths of oxygen-free "dead zones" have begun to appear. Then, to turn the corn into fuel, most ethanol plants use natural gas. And let's not even get into the whole price issue when fuel producers compete with the hungry masses for the same food item. I dissect these issues in Greasy Rider.
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As for other biofuels, their impact varies. Biodiesel made from virgin vegetable oil presents some of the same crop problems—though to a lesser degree—as corn ethanol. So I'm not a fan of it. (My apologies to Willie Nelson.)
Ethanol from sugarcane, like they make in Brazil, can be more earth-friendly. A larger amount of fuel can be produced per acre, it's less water- and fertilizer-intensive, and the sugar inside the stalks is literally turning into ethyl alcohol from the moment it's cut, requiring much less energy for ethanol production. But then there's the massive deforestation that's resulting from the planting of sugarcane, which is awful. So I scratch that one off my list, too.
So what can we burn that's guilt-free? Waste grease like I do in my diesel 1985 Mercedes wagon, since it's a substance that people are just going to throw out anyway, and it produces lower carbon emissions than fossil fuels.
Biodiesel made from Jatropha—a durable, drought-resistant plant that can be grown on land not suitable for agriculture, seems to hold promise. As does cellulosic ethanol, which is made from plant waste like corn and grass stalks but is still years away from being commercially viable; and gas derived from algae. If the future vehicle is a super-charged gas-electric hybrid rather than a plug-in electric, I believe we'll run it on biofuels. But how we get there while successfully bypassing hell is yet to be determined.
Eco Adventurer
Greg Melville is the author of Greasy Rider, a new book in which he drives across the country in a fry-oil-powered car investigating the future of green technology. A journalist who has written for Outside, The New York Times, and Popular Mechanics, Melville blogs about all things eco at greasyriderbook.blogspot.com. He lives with his wife, kids, and dog in Asheville North Carolina.
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