EPA: ethanol crops displaces climate-friendly ones

May 5, 2009 By H. JOSEF HEBERT , Associated Press Writer

(AP) -- The Environmental Protection Agency says that corn ethanol - as made today - wouldn't meet a congressional requirement that ethanol produce 20 percent less greenhouse gas than gasoline. But the agency said it is still more climate friendly than gasoline.

The EPA in its analysis said that even if worldwide land-use changes are taken into account, ethanol would still produce 16 percent less than the gasoline it is replacing.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said Tuesday that future improvements in production technologies are expected to make ethanol and other biofuels more climate friendly so they can meet the legal requirement. The requirement for a 20 percent improvement in climate impact applies only to ethanol from future production plants and exempts fuel made at existing facilities.

(This version CORRECTS APNewsNow. corrects that fails to meet congressional mandate, but is still greener than .)

©2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Filter


Move the slider to adjust rank threshold, so that you can hide some of the comments.


Display comments: newest first

Sean_W
May 05, 2009

Rank: 4 / 5 (1)
I suppose there is no point in mentioning it anymore but nobody who supports ethanol as a fuel source, save for the corn industry, expects that ethanol to come from corn. Whether it is even used as a fuel in the future, ethanol is an important chemical and research into making it more cheaply is important and promising research.
Keno_Dan
May 06, 2009

Rank: 1 / 5 (3)
There is one way to produce an abundant green ethanol crop that utilizes zero fresh water and is produced on land that would be otherwise totally unproductive. Tens of thousands of American workers would be employed full time maintaining this crop or in producing the hardware. The end product would be carbon neutral or better. The only added nutrient to the process is waste CO2 from power plants. It requires no fertilizer and grows year around. ALGAE, my friends, ALGAE, the living organism that produced the bulk of the fossil fuels extracted from the Earth....Then, we can help feed a starving world with the corn we currently produce. The Asian glaciers will disappear in the next 15 years, due to global warming we helped create, the rivers are going to dry up and hundreds of millions of people in Asia are going to starve to death...... Now, excuse me while I get back to the problem of putting man on Mars in less than 20 years...DANIEL STERLING SAMPLE SPACE DESIGNS, www.cyrus-space-system.com cinedog@netzero.net
Velanarris
May 06, 2009

Rank: not rated yet
All plants produce 90% of the Co2 they took in during the day, overnight.

There's no such thing as carbon neutral.
Keno_Dan
May 25, 2009

Rank: not rated yet
"Carbon Neutral", in respect to the Earth's atmosphere, means producing energy without increasing or decreasing the amount of CO2 that already exists in the atmosphere. Algae plantations will cover vast areas of the southwestern U.S. desert in an air sealed environment, of course. Ethanol produced will be used principally to power personal transportation vehicles.Now, back to Mars www.cyrus-space-system.com Daniel Sterling Sample Space Designs cinedog@netzero.net
Rank 2 /5 (2 votes)
Related Stories
Relevant PhysicsForums posts
  • Do some geologists actually act a lot like Randy Marsh?
    createdFeb 11, 2012
  • Discrepancy between oxygen and carbon-dioxide levels
    createdFeb 09, 2012
  • where gems are found in the world
    createdFeb 09, 2012
  • Wind Waves in Reservoir ~ Wind run-up and Wind set-up
    createdFeb 08, 2012
  • Balance of oxygen in the atmosphere
    createdFeb 01, 2012
  • The case for a methanol-based economy
    createdJan 30, 2012
  • More from Physics Forums - Earth

More news stories

Latin America mining boom clashes with conservation

Latin America is experiencing a mining boom as prices rise fuelled by a hike in global demand, but the region is also being hit by a wave of violent protests, strikes and rallies by environmentalists.

Space & Earth / Environment

created 10 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 1

Salvage workers begin pumping fuel from Italian shipwreck

Salvage workers Sunday began pumping fuel from the shipwrecked Italian cruise liner Costa Concordia, a day ahead of schedule, officials said.

Space & Earth / Environment

created 2 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Political leaders play key role in how worried Americans are by climate change: study

More than extreme weather events and the work of scientists, it is national political leaders who influence how much Americans worry about the threat of climate change, new research finds.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Feb 06, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 73

NASA budget will axe Mars deal with Europe: scientists

US President Barack Obama's budget proposal to be submitted next week for 2013 will cut NASA's budget by 20 percent and eliminate a major partnership with Europe on Mars exploration, scientists said Thursday.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Feb 10, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 58

Humans may have helped the decline of African rainforests 3000 years ago

(PhysOrg.com) -- Large areas of rainforests in Central Africa mysteriously disappeared over three thousand years ago, to be replaced by savannas. The prevailing theory has been that the cause was a change ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Feb 10, 2012 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (14) | comments 20 | with audio podcast report


Scientists discover molecular secrets of 2,000-year-old Chinese herbal remedy

For roughly two thousand years, Chinese herbalists have treated Malaria using a root extract, commonly known as Chang Shan, from a type of hydrangea that grows in Tibet and Nepal. More recent studies suggest that halofuginone, ...

New method to examine batteries -- MRI from the inside

There is an ever-increasing need for advanced batteries for portable electronics, such as phones, cameras, and music players, but also to power electric vehicles and to facilitate the distribution and storage of energy derived ...

Google might launch Drive for cloud storage soon

(PhysOrg.com) -- Google's next big move, according to the Wall Street Journal, is a cloud storage service called Drive. Hardly first to the plate, Google is simply catching up to introducing its cloud reposi ...

Lab study raises questions over nano-particle impact

Tests involving chickens have raised questions about the impact on health from engineered nano-particles, the ultra-fine grains commonly used in drugs and processed foods, scientists said on Sunday.

A mitosis mystery solved: How chromosomes align perfectly in a dividing cell

Although the process of mitotic cell division has been studied intensely for more than 50 years, Whitehead Institute researchers have only now solved the mystery of how cells correctly align their chromosomes during symmetric ...

Starve a virus, feed a cure? Findings show how some cells protect themselves against HIV

A protein that protects some of our immune cells from the most common and virulent form of HIV works by starving the virus of the molecular building blocks that it needs to replicate, according to research published online ...