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| Biofuel Investing: Biofuels May Harm More than They Help |
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| Written by Miranda Marquit | |
| Wednesday, 13 February 2008 | |
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Are biofuels just as harmful as fossil fuels? Right now, there is a bit of a conundrum in biofuel investing. Popular biofuels like ethanol that comes from corn are causing a great deal of trouble in terms of environmentally friendly investing. Why? Because recent studies are showing that producing biofuels can actually cause more harm to the environment than good. There are two main problems plaguing biofuel production right now on the level of environmental friendliness: land use, and refining and producing biofuels. in terms of land use: If US farmers and Big Ag concerns like Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM) concentrate only on corn for ethanol, than the soybeans they usually rotate in have to be grown somewhere else. This means that land has to be cleared somewhere (right now Brazil is the place -- deforesting the Amazon) to grow the soybeans no longer grown here. Crops planted to provide biofuels absorb less carbon than rainforests and natural scrubland. This is a problem becoming rather apparent in Indonesia as land is cleared for palm oil plantations. The other problem is that of refining and producing biofuels. While the finished product may give off less harmful emissions than their Big Oil counterparts, the bottom line is that there are still emissions involved in refining and producing biofuels. Corn requires an especially rigorous process that yields little in the way of efficiency. So the emissions involved in producing biofuels may actually cancel out the good effects they have. Or, in some cases, even supersede them. The New York Times points this out about what we are using for biofuels: Dr. Searchinger said the only possible exception he could see for now was sugar cane grown in Brazil, which take relatively little energy to grow and is readily refined into fuel. He added that governments should quickly turn their attention to developing biofuels that did not require cropping, such as those from agricultural waste products.Corn ethanol is not the only available biofuel, it is merely our biofuel of choice right now. There are other, more sustainable ways to develop biofuels. Until then, it is possible that biofuel investing may become seen as un-environmentally friendly as investing in Exxon (XOM). Disclosure: I do not own stock in ADM or XOM. Site disclaimer. 
Photo:Dodo-Bird, Creative Commons, Flickr Agricultural Commodities 
Alternative Energy 
Big Oil 
EthanolBiofuels 
Miranda Marquit 
XOM 
Comments
(3)
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written by David Neubert , February 14, 2008
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written by Miranda , February 14, 2008
For many people involved in ethical investing, or environmentally friendly investing, and even Christian investing, the idea is to support companies that align most closely with your personal ideas of right and wrong. It's sort of like voting with your wallet. If you invest in a company, those who adhere to certain individual standards believe that you are giving it your tacit support.
So, if you invest in ADM, some would say that you are supporting practices that are not friendly to the environment or a sustainable lifestyle. And you are providing the company with money to continue on its current track. Not everyone makes this distinction, but among many hard-core environmental investors, it is an important one.
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written by BMM , May 04, 2008
Technology is quickly developing, older esterification processes for biodiesel production are changing and microbiological and microalgae are now becoming the lead.
Respect to Brazil and other rain forests, it's sad, but what are the options, forbid those countries to become productive in name of the CO2 balance, the only way I see it will happen would be using the common US foreign politics that is, sending the army and starting wars all over. Wouldn't it be rather good to teach NORTH American’s how to save energy, is it so hard? They wouldn't be a need of deforesting Amazonas in order to supply Biofuel to USA? Nor the starving that suddenly North American’s are accusing is due to the Biofuel industry. Tag it:           | |
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If the government at taxpayer expense (my expense) is giving away free money to ADM shouldn't I be out buying ADM so I can get back some of my tax money? Actually, I think ADM is a little overvalued anyway so even with the government welfare for this corporation.