Sense of direction
In the face of changing priorities, we sometimes lose our sense of direction. We built a biofuels industry in Iowa, because the nation wanted to free itself from dependence on foreign oil. A few years ago, that made sense. Oil prices were outrageously high, corn and soybeans were relatively cheap—ethanol looked like a good deal. In the interim that equation has turned on its head and biofuels no longer have the caché they had back then. Instead the industry has been criticized for falling short of new priorities.
Science magazine, one of the most respected scientific journals, headlined a Newsfocus article (May 1, 2009) with "Corn-based ethanol flunks key test." Their issues concerned the California Air Resources Board adoption of a low-carbon fuels standard that included indirect land use change in the policy.
Another study published in Science (Chiu, et al. 2009) reported that corn grown for biofuels consumes, on average, 1000 gallons of (irrigated) water for every gallon of ethanol. Yet another study (Campbell, et al. 2009) finds that it is more efficient to burn biomass directly to make electricity than it is to convert it to biofuels.
Fortunately, the Obama administration has taken strong steps to support the biofuels industry and to address these issues by establishing a Biofuels Interagency Working Group with the goal to "develop a comprehensive approach to accelerating the investment in and production of American biofuels and reducing our dependence on fossil fuels."
What should come out of the working group and from the administration are steps to support research addressing these new priorities rather than abandoning our sense of direction.
