Study: Figure land-use changes in biofuel footprint

Those who want to count land-use changes in calculating the environmental impact of biofuels got fresh ammunition yesterday from a study by nine scientists, published in the journal Science.

"In recent months, researchers have begun to worry that bioenergy crops could replace the world's forests and savannahs on a huge scale unless climate policies start to take full account of how these crops' production affects greenhouse-gas concentrations," Juliet Eilperin writes for The Washington Post. "None of the major climate regimes -- including the Kyoto Protocol, the European Union's carbon market and the House-passed climate bill -- account for the carbon released by changing land use for biofuels."

In the U.S., Congress has been silent on whether land-use change in other countries should figure in calculation of whether a biofuel such as ethanol meets the federal Renewable Fuels Standard, but the Environmental Protection Agency has said it should, citing previous research confirmed by the latest study. "House leaders realized they needed to make a change before passage of the climate bill," Eilperin writes, "but they ran out of time." Or perhaps out of political room; the bill barely passed, 219-213, and such studies mean that "Carbon advantage of biofuels may be overstated," as the Post headline notes.