Energy Literacy Advocates Newsroom

Energy Literacy Advocates (ELA) is a non-partisan, non-profit, public education and advocacy group dedicated to improving the energy literacy of all sectors of our democracy in order to empower a comprehensive national energy policy that is responsible and sustainable. Stay tuned for updated energy news!

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Biofuels May Threaten Environment, UN Warns

There has been a lot of talk lately about the environmental impact of biofuel production from a food and water supply standpoint, not to mention the impacts of changing over land use patterns to accommodate biofuel crops. All points are worthy of serious discussion, and while biofuels will likely play a role in our future energy mix it must be implemented carefully to ensure the environmental impact is positive. For the US a good example of this would be growing cellulosic crops on otherwise unused arid land in the great plains region. This could be done without irrigation and with little or no fertilizer used. The catch - how to transport either the biomass or the processed fuel to consumers.

Read the article here.

Labels: biofuels, environment