Word: ethanol
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...price of staple crops like corn. But the Science papers make a more sweeping argument. In their paper, Fargione's team calculated the "carbon debt" created by raising biofuel crops - the amount of carbon released in the process of converting natural landscapes into cropland. They 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...
...simplistic, and failing to put biofuels in context. And it's true that the switch to biofuels can have benefits that go beyond climate change. Biofuels tend to produce less local pollution than fossil fuels, one reason why Brazil - which gets 30% of its automobile fuel from sugar-cane ethanol - has managed to reduce once stifling air pollution. In the U.S., switching to domestically produced biofuels helps cut dependence on foreign oil, and boosts income for farmers. But in all of these cases, the benefits now seem to pale next to the climate change deficits. Fargione points out that...
...Missouri's demographics and its election rules make it particularly tough to handicap a close race here. Because the state mirrors America, every conceivable issue might gain traction - Missouri has nervous factory workers and ethanol-happy farmers; it has failing school districts and wealthy boomers irritated by the estate tax; it has huge corporations alongside angry populists. No one agenda has captured the race...
...wind power and biofuels - also 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...
...maverick above partisan politics is well-earned. Calling on his own experience as a prisoner of war, he has ardently opposed torture and criticized many in his own party who do not. While campaigning in Iowa, he refused to “drink his morning glass of ethanol,” as he jokingly refers to other candidates’ support of ethanol subsidies to pander to the Iowa constituency. Time and time again, he has come out against special interest groups and wasteful government spending, all in the name of serving the people...