A study found that the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard has failed to meet greenhouse gas emission targets but increased corn prices by 30%. The Renewable Fuels Association called the report "a completely fictional and erroneous account of the environmental impacts of the Renewable Fuel Standard."
The carbon intensity of corn ethanol supported by the U.S.'s Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) is likely at least 24% higher than gasoline, according to a peer-reviewed study from University of Wisconsin researchers.
Researchers determined that the production of corn-based ethanol under the RFS policy "has failed to meet the policy’s own greenhouse gas emissions targets and negatively affected water quality, the area of land used for conservation, and other ecosystem processes." The RFS also pushed prices for corn up by 30% and other crops by 20%, they said.
The study aims to support policymakers as they determine the future of the RFS, which is among the world's largest biofuel programs. The policy was first established in 2008 and is now under review by the Biden administration.
The study, Environmental outcomes of the US Renewable Fuel Standard, will be published in the March issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. The work was supported by the U.S. Deptartment of Energy and the National Wildlife Federation, among others. The Bloomberg news service noted that the National Wildlife Federation is a vocal critic of the RFS.
'Precarious' conclusions, shouts trade group
The Renewable Fuels Association, which aims to expand demand for American-made biofuels, said the RFS is the "single most successful clean fuels policy in the U.S." The group said ethanol has saved Americans money, reduced the country's dependence on foreign fuels, and supported job growth.
The Renewable Fuels Association accused the researchers of "precariously" connecting a series of "worst-case scenarios." The trade group's president and CEO, Geoff Cooper, said that the RFA previously met with the study's author and offered to collaborate on research but never heard back.
RFA released a line-by-line rebuttal of the University of Wisconsin study. The group references a study released in 2021 by authors linked to Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that found well-to-wheel greenhouse gas emissions of corn ethanol to be 40% lower than gasoline produced from crude oil.
The authors of Carbon intensity of corn ethanol in the United States attributed declining carbon intensity to improved farming practices, more efficient use of natural gas, and an increasing share of electric generation by ethanol refineries.
About 40 years ago, I used to lie in bed on Sunday mornings with my coffee and Los Angeles Times opened to the real estate section: “Homes in Other States.” I recall voicing some level of buyer’s remorse, having just paid more for a who-cares house in Southern California, where I could have bought half a county in Oklahoma or Mississippi.
My girlfriend at the time, now my wife, would ask me, “But do you think you’d be happy living in West Virginia, with some of the most poorly-educated people in the country? Do you think that would forward your career and your overall life satisfaction?” She had a point, to be sure.
Today’s MAGA conspiracy theorists will tell you that people are leaving California in droves, because of things like environmental regulations. Yet that doesn’t explain why the Golden State, if it were a country, would have the fourth largest economy on the planet, and a house here identical to one in Alabama whose value there may be $200K would fetch about $1.2 million here.
People don’t come here for the wide-open freeways. We’re here for the beauty, the sophistication of so many people, highly educated people, and unparalleled business opportunities.
There’s a reason that Google, Oracle, Apple, Nvidia, Adobe, Salesforce, Facebook, Visa, Wells Fargo, Disney, etc. aren’t located in Arkansas or Louisiana.
At left we have John Fetterman talking to people so stupid they’ll believe that it would have been wrong for the British colonists to oppose King George III in the late 18th Century, or for the people of Germany and Italy in the 1930s to stand up against Hitler and Mussolini. What about the people in today’s dictatorships, i.e., the people in Russia, China, North Korea, or any of the other 50+ authoritarian regimes around the world?
Morons tend to agree with the loudest, most aggressive voice of nationalism, regardless of how little sense it makes.
It’s a great moment of opportunity for Fetterman.
Seminal astrophysicist Carl Sagan explains why uncomfortable ideas may be banned in religion, they must not be shunned in science.
This is an important concept in American life today, as conspiracy theorists are convinced that climate change denial cannot be considered in scientific circles.
I happened to bring this up in my interview with Dr. V. Ramanathan of the Scripps Institution, who has been amassing data on global warming since the 1970s. He laughed, and explained, “If I could prove that human activity was not causing temperatures to rise, I’d be be one of the wealthiest and most famous scientists in world history.”
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