New Study Finds Many Biofuels Come with a Large Carbon Footprint

By Chris de Morsella on October 25, 2009 3 Comments biofuel, biofuels production, biogeochemistry, carbon dioxide, carbon emissions, carbon footprint, Climate Change, climate policy, CO2, computer model, environmental effect, fertilizer, food crop displacement, fossil-fuel emissions, global modeling system, global warming, greenhouse gases, Jerry Melillo, land management, MA, Marine Biological Lab, Massachusets, MBL, N2O, nitrous oxide emissions, WHOI, Woods Hole, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

A new study by the Marine Biological Lab (MBL) of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has reported that biofuels that displace food crops may have a much bigger carbon footprint than previously thought. MBL senior scientist Jerry Melillo and his colleagues at the MBL have reported that carbon emissions from land-use change caused by the displacement of food crops and pastures by a global biofuels program may be twice as much as the emissions from lands directly devoted to biofuels production.