We now know that the Earth's climate is changing, caused by the accelerating use of fossil fuels that started at the time of the Industrial Revolution. The dramatic changes in land use – the conversion of natural ecosystems to agricultural fields – that accompanied the growth of human population also contributed substantially by releasing carbon stored in the vegetation and in the soils. These activities caused an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide such as has not been seen in the past 400,000 years. This increase is responsible for the so-called greenhouse effect, the warming of the land and the oceans with resulting changes in wind, rain and storm patterns. The evidence supporting this interpretation is both overwhelming and unequivocal.

Biofuels can help mitigate this global climate change phenomenon because they are made from plants and algae that absorbed carbon dioxide in the process of photosynthesis. When we burn fossil fuels, we add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, but burning biofuels releases carbon dioxide that was taken out of the atmosphere by plants or algae a few days, weeks or years earlier. So, we create a carbon cycle, helping to prevent further buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The United States has a strong biofuels industry based largely on ethanol derived from corn grain and made possible by the high price of petroleum, generous farm subsidies and a stiff tariff on imports of sugar and ethanol.

Unfortunately, all biofuels are not created equal when we look at the extent to which they mitigate greenhouse gas buildup. The reason is that growing plants and converting plant material into biofuel also takes energy. And at the moment that energy comes mostly from electricity generated by fossil fuels. So much energy is required to produce the two main biofuels now being utilized in the United States – ethanol made from cornstarch and biodiesel made from canola and soybeans – that the net effect of their use on greenhouse gases is negative rather than positive.  Read rest....

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