What Does Heating Homes in New York City with Biodiesel Have to do with Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon?
The Oakland Institute
Many of us think we’re doing the climate and the environment a big favor when we consider meeting our liquid fuel needs through biodiesel. I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s time to think again.
Agribusiness is seeing dollar signs as cities and states across the country consider using biodiesel to fuel municipal vehicle fleets and heat homes and businesses. In New York City, over a million households depend on petroleum heating oil to stay warm every winter. Legislation currently wending its way through City Council proposes adding biodiesel to future supplies.
But where does this biodiesel come from and at what environmental cost?
Proponents of agrofuels have plugged biodiesel as a renewable and environmentally friendly alternative to petroleum, but the unfortunate reality is that America and Brazil’s industrial-scale soybean farms devour and destroy enormous quantities of non-renewable and irreplaceable resources. Whether in Iowa or the Amazon, powering the machines that plow, plant, harvest, cast fertilizers, spray pesticides, and pump irrigation water is energy intensive and the fossil fuels consumed by on-farm operations release significant quantities of greenhouse gases and toxic air emissions.
Adding to soybean agriculture’s formidable fossil fuel tally, large amounts of natural gas are needed to produce the nitrogen based fertilizers that promote their growth. These fertilizers break down in fields releasing nitrous oxides, a global warming agent hundreds of times more potent than CO2. When these fertilizers leach from farm fields they poison drinking water and ravage marine ecosystems. Run-off from Midwestern farm fields ends up in the Gulf of Mexico where it contributes to a New Jersey-size “dead zone” almost entirely absent of marine life.
A toxic rainbow of pesticides are sprayed on soybeans in an effort to combat weeds and insects. Making matters worse, 91 percent of the US soybean acreage planted in 2007 was genetically engineered to tolerate herbicides, a development that has boosted glyphosate applications several fold. Glyphosate, a powerful weed killer, is the third most common cause of pesticide illness in farm workers; exposure has been linked to rare cancers, miscarriages, and premature births.
And to top of the bad news, every acre of food diverted for fuel requires that another acre be planted to grow the missing food. In the case of Brazil, this virtually guarantees the continued destruction of the Amazon as rainforest gives way to soybean monocultures. A process which not only destroys valuable wildlife habitat, but also releases enormous quantities of greenhouse gases that intact rainforest normally retains and captures.
Using biodiesel would result in serious consequences for our health and the environment and communities are pushing back with a straightforward solution. By simply switching to ultra low sulfur diesel heating oil, a fuel standard already mandated for on-road vehicles, we can dramatically improve the quality of the air we breathe daily while reducing oil consumption through improved furnace efficiency. And we can do it without raising the cost of home heating or depending on unsustainable and environmentally destructive biodiesel!
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Aletho News 
The answer to the inflammatory headline is, “Nothing.”
A program to introduce 2% renewable biodiesel into the petroleum heating oil used in New York City is a step in the right direction. The heating oil industry itself supports this move because it reduces harmful emissions and reduces our dependence on foreign crude.
The USEPA has determined that biodiesel reduces greenhouse gases by 86% compared to petroleum. Even when EPA included potential emissions from expanding soy acres in South America for livestock feed, EPA concluded soy biodiesel reduces greenhouse gases 57% compared to petroleum. In addition, EPA requires any imported biodiesel to certify that it was produced on land that was already in production prior to 2008. These protections mean U.S. consumers can be confident that their biodiesel does not contribute to deforestation.
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“EPA requires any imported biodiesel to certify that it was produced on land that was already in production prior to 2008. These protections mean U.S. consumers can be confident that their biodiesel does not contribute to deforestation.”
Don, your credulousness regarding this “certification” exposes the willful ignorance of your entire perspective. I suppose that displacement of crop acreage never occurred to you as a possibility perhaps? Nah, you choose to be blind and have faith in the meaningless certification.
And why should anyone care about reliance on imported crude but not on reliance on imported soy oil? That’s simply inane Don. Or are you one of those bigots that wants us to cease trading with Semites? Only in New York. Figures. Disgusting.
Get lost. And take your war-preparing, anti-trade and hate mantras with you.
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No new acres of soy need to be planted to make our fuel use more sustainable.
Soybeans are planted primarily to produce protein meal for livestock feed. When soybeans are crushed to produce protein meal, a surplus of oil results. This is the oil that is used to make biodiesel. Using the oil for a needed purpose can actually make the protein meal cheaper for livestock farmers. The assertion that acres of food are being diverted to produce fuel is incorrect. Nor would it be accurate to say that additional acres of soy will be planted to make biodiesel. Food and fuel can be co-produced on the same acres. We already have enough vegetable oil, fats, and greases in the U.S. to meet our biodiesel targets.
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What utter nonsense!
As if cattle feed does not need any fat component.
As though soy oil was waste until the biodiesel industry came along.
Do you take those that you peddle this crap to to be idiots?
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For every unit of energy put into making biodiesel, 4.5 units of renewable, solar energy are produced. This includes all of the fuel used on the farm and for transport and manufacturing. The greenhouse gas reductions computed by EPA also include these emissions from the entire fuel lifecycle.
Modern farmers are continually improving their practices. No-till and conservation tillage are replacing the plow. Advanced breeding and higher crop yields go hand-in-hand with advances like reduced field tillage. Not only does this reduce the fuel used to cultivate the soil, but it allows the use of improved herbicides, which are much safer than chemicals used in the past.
Soybeans fix their own nitrogen into the soil. They actually pull nitrogen out of the atmosphere and turn it into a valuable soil nutrient. This makes soybeans a valuable crop planted in rotation with other crops, because they can reduce the fertilizer applied to other crops. Again, nitrous oxide emissions are included in EPA’s analysis that concludes biodiesel reduces greenhouse gases by 57% compared to petroleum.
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“Modern … no-till and conservation tillage are replacing the plow.”
Ah yes the more round-up they use the less they have to mechanically eliminate weeds. Great! As long as we are willing to ignore the development of resistant superweeds and soils that are dead of anything but them and your beloved GMO soy.
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Don’s right.
Take a look at this Myths and Facts piece from a site all about real info on biodiesel – http://www.biodieselsustainability.com/MythsFacts2009_1.pdf
Here’s the relevant info:
Myth: Biodiesel increases greenhouse gases because it causes land to be cleared.
Fact: U.S. biodiesel reduces lifecycle carbon emissions by 60 to 80 percent, depending on the source, making it the best carbon reduction tool of any liquid fuel commercially available. Biodiesel is the first advanced biofuel to make it to market. It has the highest energy balance of any fuel, returning 4.5 units of energy for every unit of fossil energy needed to produce it. New cropland is not needed to make biodiesel because it is generally produced from co-products of crops already being grown. From 2004 to 2008, when U.S. biodiesel production climbed from 25 million to 700 million gallons, soybean acres here stayed virtually the same, and soybean acres in Brazil decreased. There are surplus stocks of U.S. fats and oils sufficient to meet near and medium term biodiesel target volumes.
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Don,
Since this comment originated from the very same IP# as your comments am I to presume that “Jessica” is your female id or did you have your wife write this one?
Don’t bother answering. You’ve taken up enough time with your deceptions as it is.
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While it is convenient to think things like this, the real problem with deforestation is us. As a recent Discovery Channel documentary showed, the American luxury goods sector is fueling deforestation. If you have cherry hardwood floors or cabinets in your house/apt or you own most any type of guitar, you are likely partially to blame. Discovery showed loggers in the Amazon that are employed by the Gibson guitar company. Gibson sells Brazilian mahogany guitars for $3,000 to $6,000 and their Brazilian cherry guitars start at $8,000 and go up from there.
According to the report, one mahogany tree is worth $10,000 to $20,000, depending on its size. One section of cherry cabinatry costs about $5,000. An entire acre of soybeans is worth $400. So you do the math…it’s pretty obvious that forests are being logged for something other than the opportunity to plant soybeans. The unfortunate reality is that Americans simply choose to ignore the facts because we would rather have pretty floors, cabinets, and guitars.
From Greenpeace: http://www.musicwood.org/news/acoustic-sidebar.htm
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That’s simply poor logic on your part Frank.
While it may be that an acre of soy only generates $400, one must multiply that figure by the number of years one intends to produce biodiesel.
Furthermore, the potential demand for fuel is vast in relation to the demand for guitars and cabinets. It is really irrelevant that some deforestation is caused by these other end uses because the one use does NOT preclude the other. Rather the two would co-exist and simply result in that much MORE deforestation.
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Wow…someone provides a well-reasoned response to your opinion so you call them a racist? Nice job fostering a discussion here.
Of course, perhaps now I understand why you have the essay on the site that suggests a cover-up of 9-11 to protect the Israilis who you think were actually behind it.
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