Page last updated March 3, 2008. Page located at
http://ele.arizona.edu/polaskyabstract.html
©2007 The Arizona Board of Regents. Send comments and questions to arecweb@ag.arizona.edu
University of Minnesota
March 2008
Abstract: The problems of being “addicted to oil,” which include local and regional air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, dependence on foreign supply, and paying high prices at the pump, have driven an intense search for substitutes. Biofuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel, are a potential low-carbon, low pollution, domestic alternative to oil. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 established a goal of producing 36 billion gallons of biofuels, with a maximum of 15 billion gallon of corn ethanol, by 2022. But whether biofuels offer a solution to the problems of oil addiction depends on whether biofuels can be produced in large quantity in a cost-competitive and environmentally benign manner. We review evidence on the life-cycle emissions and production costs of biofuels versus their petroleum counterparts including potential changes in land use to grow additional biomass for biofuel production. The current generation of domestic biofuels, primarily corn-grain ethanol, fails to satisfy many of the criteria for being a desirable substitute for oil. Depending upon the way that corn-grain ethanol is produced it can generate small reductions or actual increases in greenhouse gas emissions relative to an energy equivalent amount of gasoline. Corn-grain ethanol also tends to increase life-cycle emissions of criteria air pollutants relative to gasoline. Advances in technology will be necessary if meeting the goal of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 is to help rather then hinder achieving an energy supply that is low carbon, low pollution and low cost.
