Studies deem biofuels a greenhouse threat | CNET News.com

We seem to have something less than consensus as to whether biofuels are good for the planet. I have always maintained that ethanol from corn (kernels) was and is a boondoggle that has very serious and negative side effects that may not be counter balanced by the reduction in the growth of petroleum usage. It's putting big bucks in farmers' pockets right now, but we're paying for it in food prices.

Here's the NY Times take on the studies.

Negative baggage of corn-based ethanol includes: higher food prices; higher land prices; higher prices for non-corn agricultural products as land is taken for growing corn; collapse in the price of ethanol because production increases are not matched by demand and distribution capacity.

""When you take this into account, most of the biofuel that people are using or planning to use would probably increase greenhouse gasses substantially," said Timothy Searchinger, lead author of one of the studies and a researcher in environment and economics at Princeton University. "Previously there's been an accounting error: land use change has been left out of prior analysis."

These plant-based fuels were originally billed as better than fossil fuels because the carbon released when they were burned was balanced by the carbon absorbed when the plants grew. But even that equation proved overly simplistic because the process of turning plants into fuels causes its own emissions--for refining and transport, for example."

Studies deem biofuels a greenhouse threat | CNET News.com