Small Town News

Its a theory, but does it work?

---

Farming and Your Freedom

Here's hoping what happens in the rain forests of Brazil stays in the rain forests of Brazil and doesn't reflect on the ethanol or biodiesel industries in the United States.

If certain U.S. senators have their way, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will be restricted in its ability to use international "indirect land use effects" when it calculates the carbon footprint of the various biofuels, including corn-based ethanol and soybean biodiesel. These three Midwestern senators, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and Charles Grassley and Tom Harkin of Iowa, also want the EPA to approve the blending of ethanol to gasoline at 15 percent -- up from the current 10 percent.

Both of these queries are in the form of amendments to an Interior Department funding bill making its way through the Senate as I write. The amendment on indirect land use, introduced by Harkin and supported by Nelson and Grassley, asks the EPA to decrease reliance on indirect land use data in deciding federal mandates for ethanol and biodiesel. They don't change existing law, but they are designed to cut the funding sources for enforcement for fiscal 2010.

The 2007 energy bill increased federal mandates for domestic use of ethanol and biodiesel on the notion that the indirect effects in other countries, such as Brazil, might increase greenhouse gas emissions associated with these renewable fuels. Certain environmentalists still want the EPA to consider ways in which U.S. corn and soybean plantings might increase deforestation in the tropics.

Grassley, for one, said there is no scientific consensus that indirect land use has any real effect on the environment. On the other hand, several farm groups, as well as ethanol lobbying groups, support the senators' amendments.

Meanwhile, National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson commented that "the theory of indirect land use is just that, a theory. This is not based on universally accepted science and should not be considered when regulating renewable fuels."

For many, the notion that what you produce here means deforestation somewhere else in the wide world is pretty vague. Just how does one know this? While it can be shown that environmental impacts of industrialized and developing nations around the globe are interlocked in overall effect on the environment, this theory of indirect land use has not been proved out, and it seems like a waste of time and producers' money for the EPA to try to calculate such wills of the wisp, translating them into bulky and very expensive regulations.

The Renewable Fuels Association has looked at the details of the data used by the EPA and the models used, and has concluded: "The impressive productivity advancements of American farmers have largely mitigated the need for additional arable acres to be brought into production here in the U.S. Land exists around the globe, should it be needed, that can be responsibly and sustainably brought into agricultural production a team of researchers from Stanford University estimated that an area of abandoned agricultural land half the size of the continental U.S. could be brought into production with minimal impact on the environment."

Professor Bruce Dale of Michigan State University told of a group of 30 scientists and other interested parties that debated indirect land use impact for six months and came to the conclusion that "you can't reliably measure indirect impacts."

So, indirectly speaking, the EPA is the Great and Powerful Oz, but the mighty senators will ride against it on white steeds and, if their amendments prevail, the vast agency will have to take another look at this flimsy, but economically impactful theory.

I'll see ya!



Copyright 2009 The Decorah Journal, Decorah, Iowa. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from SmallTownPapers, Inc.

© 2009 The Decorah Journal Decorah, Iowa. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

More from The Decorah Journal