Yesterday two speakers made arguments for biofuels projects. One said that there are good and bad biofuels projects. That is difficult to argue with, especially when using a fallen tree on your yard to heat you home, or burning waste veg oil in a diesel engine are considered biofuel projects. The other speaker outlined for criteria for evaluating biofuel projects, which are as follows:
1. No displacement of food crops
2. No conversion of undeveloped land
3. No errosion, runoff, or NOx emissions
4. All GHG emissions assessed on full lifecycle
These guidelines are very well thought out, and would be good for determining the environmental sustainability of any given project.
The problem is that the projects these two gentlemen were promoting did not meet the criteria. In fact, I believe that the criteria statement is purely PR. The biofuels industry has a PR problem.