sustainability in biofuels: goals, process, place and the case of corn ethanol
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Sustainability in Biofuels: Goals, Process, Place and the Case of Corn Ethanol. Sean Gillon UCSC, Department of Environmental Studies Guest Lecture, Sustainability Engineering and Practice (EE 80S); October 31, 2007. What we’ll cover…. We’ll Cover. What we’ll cover… -Biofuels background - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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Sustainability in Biofuels: Goals, Process, Place and the Case of Corn Ethanol
Sean GillonUCSC, Department of Environmental StudiesGuest Lecture, Sustainability Engineering and Practice (EE 80S); October 31, 2007
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We’ll Cover
What we’ll cover…
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We’ll Cover
What we’ll cover…
-Biofuels background
-Why biofuels now?
-U.S. biofuels policy and strategy
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We’ll Cover
What we’ll cover…
-Biofuels background
-Why biofuels now?
-U.S. biofuels policy and strategy
-What do sustainable biofuels look like?
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We’ll Cover
What we’ll cover…
-Biofuels background
-Why biofuels now?
-U.S. biofuels policy and strategy
-What do sustainable biofuels look like?
-The Case of Corn Ethanol: Place and Scale in Environmental Governance
-Conclusions
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“We can get fuel from fruit, from that shrub by the roadside, or from apples, weeds, saw-dust—almost anything! There is fuel in every bit of vegetable matter that can be fermented … And it remains for someone to find out how this fuel can be produced commercially — better fuel at a cheaper price than we know now.”
~ Henry Ford, 1925
Not a new conversation…
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Wall Street Journal (1943)
Wall Street Journal (1943)
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Where are biofuels?
Source: World Resources Institute (2006)
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What are sustainable biofuels?• What do we want biofuels for? • Who can biofuels benefit? • Where do we want them produced? Keep these questions in mind throughout - we’ll discuss at the end
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Why “Renewable Fuels” in the US Now?
• Tax credit to gas blenders ($0.51/gal ) extended through 2010
• $0.54/gal import tariff (Brazil)
• Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the EPA’s Renewable Fuels Standard: 7.5 BGY by 2012
• Farm Bill now has an ‘Energy Title’
• State-level Initiatives
• Funding (DOE, USDA, private industry)
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Renewable Fuels Standard:
minimum of 7.5 BGY by 2012
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MOREGRAPHS!
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Corn and ethanol production
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Where are we going with this? Goals / Benefits Promoted: • Reduce GHG emissions• Reduce dependence on foreign oil• Benefit to rural economies
…and where is the sustainability?
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Reduced GHG emissions?Net GHG vs. Net Energy
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Source: Farrell et al. (2006)
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Reduced GHG emissions?
Petroleum input vs. Net Energy
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Source: Farrell et al. (2006)
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Price per bbl of biofuel
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Reduced GHG emissions?
Corn Ethanol vs. Soy Diesel
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Source: Hill et al. (2006)
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Reduced GHG emissions?
Cellulosic?
• Lower inputs, potential for habitat creation as well as increased diversity and soil restoration
• Again, the technology isn’t there
• Neither are the production systems
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Reduced dependence on foreign oil“Not only would we all pay less for gasoline, but more important, Venezuela and Iran would no longer be making the kind of money they are today to fund our enemies.”
There is a security threat inherent in the fact that “…eighty percent of the world’s oil supply is controlled by governments.” Ethanol’s critics should recognize that “we are talking about the ability of our country to continue on the lifestyle to which we are accustomed.”
- Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN)
- Al Hubbard, top economic advisor to Bush
Sources: Brasher (2007), Truitt (2007)
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Reduced Dependence on Foreign Oil?
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Ethanol in corn and gas markets
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Source: USDA (2007) FSI = food, seed & industrial uses
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Place Matters
“Nowadays, I think [Iowa voters] kind of expect people to be for ethanol – whether they’re newly born-again ethanol people, or old-fashioned, long-term ethanol people”
- Senator Charles E. Grassley (R-IA)
Source: Murray (2007)
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“It seems like a farmer gets one or two homeruns in his career. Is this our homerun? I think so.”
-Iowa corn grower
“Four-dollar corn is a bad thing - write that down.”
-Minnesota corn grower
Sources: Paulson (2007), Birger (2007)
Rural Economic Benefits
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"In the last three years, my expenses have gone up about 50 percent. There's so much more invested and at risk. You can't control the weather or the market …it's a lot more stressful.”
-Wisconsin corn grower
Source: Duwe (2007)
Rural Economic Benefits
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Livestock Producers“We’re subsidizing corn ethanol and we don’t need to do that…Where I live you can’t buy corn…It’s all contracted for sale to ethanol plants. You can’t raise pigs without feed.”
-Nebraska pork producer
Source: Perkins (2007)
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Livestock Producers"This ethanol binge is insane … This talk about energy independence and wrapping yourself in the flag and singing God Bless America—all that's going to come at a severe cost to another part of the economy.”
- NCBA President
Source: Herbst (2007)
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“Someone has to stop building ethanol plants or I suspect margins will remain fairly depressed … we are already building too many ethanol plants for [the] economics to make sense.”
-Credit Suisse Financial Services Group
Quote Source: Haddadin 2007
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Source: EPA (2006) RFS
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-Ethanol plants go to cheap corn, which soon becomes expensive corn
-More corn is grown with numerous adverse environmental impacts
-Ethanol plants themselves also bring social and environmental burdens
-water consumption increases, railroads are expanded, air pollution often increases, energy consumption increases (sometimes onsite coal-firing or derived from coal)
-communities often offer enormous tax incentives to attract refineries
-Large-scale industry consolidation is likely
…what else could the Midwest do?
Ethanol Refineries
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Country/year Rural UrbanEthiopia, 1999
Food
Energy
69.510.4
63.87.7
Bangladesh, 2000
Food
Energy
65.69.3
60.19.4
Guatemala, 2000
Food
Energy
50.51.3
47.61.3
Tajikistan, 2003
Food
Energy
70.74.9
73.74.2
Food & Energy Expenditure Shares(for $1/day poor) Source: IPRI (2007) cited in Ahmed et al (2007)
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Agroecology and the production of corn
“Frankly we’re not so much worried about this plant using 1.5 million gallons [or 4.6 acre feet] of water a day, even though we live in a semi-arid area … we’re worried about the corn.”
Source: Fisher (2007)
- Kansas resident
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Thirsty corn
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Environmental Stewardship?The projected 4.5 million acre increase
in corn production threatens to “erase some of the gains of the last 20 years of Farm Bill and Clean Water Act implementation” (EPA 2006).
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Iowa acres out of CRP
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Source: Secchi and Babcock (2007)
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Negotiations - scaling up?“I respectfully request that agriculture’s role in fighting climate change be made a major new focus of the next farm bill.”
- Native prairies, carbon sequestration, cellulosic ethanol?
-Sen. Klobuchar (D - MN)
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What is sustainability in biofuels?
• What do place and scale matter? – Ecological, social, economic,
institutional, and political variation
• Can we develop goals?
• How to approach the uncertainty?
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Summary• Current biofuels policy has a ways to go toward
sustainability
• Sustainability will be different across regions but goals can be established
• Process matters - there are no obvious answers and there are many interests
• Be engaged with the conversation
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Questions?
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Biofuels Funding
• USDA and DOE research grants and industry funding
• Fastest growing sector in ‘clean’ tech investment
• Large private industry grants to public research institutions
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