Word: biodiesel
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...found that corn ethanol produced in the U.S. had a carbon debt of 93 years, meaning it would take nearly a century for ethanol, which does produce fewer greenhouse gases when burned than fossil fuels, to make up for the carbon released in that initial landscape conversion. Palm tree biodiesel in Indonesia and Malaysia - one of the most controversial biofuels currently in use, because of its connection to tropical deforestation in those countries - has a carbon debt of 86 years. Soybean biodiesel in the Amazonian rainforest has a debt of 320 years. "People don't realize there is three times...
...transport fuel to come from biofuel by the end of the year - the price of crops rises. That in turn encourages farmers to clear virgin land and plant more crops, releasing even more carbon in a vicious cycle. For instance, as the U.S. uses more biodiesel, much of which is made from soybeans or palm oil, farmers in Brazil or Indonesia will clear more land to raise soybeans to replace those used for fuel. "When we ask the world's farmers to feed 6 billion people and ask them to produce fuel, that requires them to use additional land," says...
Estimated removal costs are less than $200,000, and low-sulfur biodiesel now fuels trucks and sweepers. Still, sifting tons of litter is a challenge; only a fraction will be recycled...
...stand to benefit from the transition to clean power. Montana can't produce a lot of the corn that currently goes to make most biofuel in the U.S., but it does have vast acreage that could be used to raise waste crops for cellulosic ethanol in the future, or biodiesel today. Schweitzer points out that his administration was able to pass a renewable energy portfolio standard, mandating that 15% of the state's power come from alternative sources by 2015. That's exactly the sort of standard - intended to speed the development of renewable power - that Congress wasn't able...
...residents of Bali. As Bakken leads a tour around the edges of the landfill, he points out a trash-strewn creek flowing between the raw piles of waste and a surprisingly vibrant thatch of mangroves. Sprigs of jatropha - a tropical shrub that can be harvested to produce clean biodiesel - are already growing on the slopes of garbage. "We're going to green this landfill," says Bakken. "One day this is going to be a park." Squint enough - and hold your nose against the smell - and you can just...