Biofuel Program could Invite Giant Grass Invasion

Bio­fu­el Pro­gram could Invite Giant Grass Invasion

- by John Upton, July 2013. Source: Grist 

Here’s anoth­er envi­ron­men­tal incen­tive to ditch the car: That gas you buy at the pump could soon be help­ing tow­er­ing inva­sive grass­es wreak hav­oc on America’s ecosystems.

The EPA recent­ly approved the use of giant reed and napi­er grass as bio­fu­el ingre­di­ents under its Renew­able Fuel Stan­dard pro­gram. The pro­gram requires oil com­pa­nies to blend a min­i­mum amount of bio­fu­el into the gaso­line that they sell. To receive EPA approval under the pro­gram, fuel cre­at­ed from grass must pro­duce 60 per­cent less green­house gas than does nor­mal gasoline.

But in approv­ing the use of the two grass­es as feed­stocks for bio­fu­el, the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment has begun pro­mot­ing plan­ta­tions that envi­ron­men­tal­ists warn threat­en the Amer­i­can land­scape and its native species. 

Envi­ros are espe­cial­ly con­cerned about poten­tial new plan­ta­tions of giant reed, aka Arun­do don­ax. This mon­strous grass can grow two-inch wide stems and reach 20 feet in height. And once it begins wreak­ing hav­oc in the wild, the inva­sive grass can be an expen­sive (and ener­gy-inten­sive) night­mare to remove. From a let­ter to the EPA [PDF] signed by dozen of envi­ron­men­tal groups last year:

“Arun­do don­ax dis­places native veg­e­ta­tion and neg­a­tive­ly impacts cer­tain threat­ened and endan­gered species such as the Least Bell’s Vireo. In the Unit­ed States, Arun­do don­ax is list­ed as a nox­ious weed in Texas Cal­i­for­nia, Col­orado, and Neva­da. Addi­tion­al­ly, it has been not­ed as either inva­sive or a seri­ous risk in New Mex­i­co, Alaba­ma, and South Car­oli­na. Once Arun­do don­ax has invad­ed an area, con­trol is dif­fi­cult and cost­ly. In Cal­i­for­nia, costs range between $5,000 and $17,000 per acre to erad­i­cate the weed. Oth­er esti­mates put that cost as high as $25,000 per acre.”

Fol­low­ing this let­ter and oth­er com­plaints from envi­ron­men­tal­ists, the EPA post­poned plans ear­li­er this year to approve the two grass­es as bio­fu­els and made some adjust­ments. The EPA’s new­ly issued rule lays out reg­u­la­tions designed to reduce the risks of these inva­sive species escap­ing into the wild.

From Bio­mass Magazine:

“Bio­fu­el pro­duc­ers uti­liz­ing the feed­stocks will be required to demon­strate that growth of giant reed or napi­er grass will not pose a sig­nif­i­cant­ly like­li­hood of spread­ing beyond the plant­ed area, or that the inva­sive risks are being man­aged and min­i­mized through an EPA-approved Risk Mit­i­ga­tion Plan. The plan is to include means for ear­ly detec­tion and rapid response to poten­tial spread. It must also include best man­age­ment prac­tices, con­tin­u­ous mon­i­tor­ing and report­ing of site con­di­tions, and a plan for site clo­sure, along with post-clo­sure monitoring.”

Those rules weren’t enough to sat­is­fy crit­ics, how­ev­er. “EPA is reck­less­ly open­ing a Pandora’s box,” said Nation­al Wildlife Fed­er­a­tion lob­by­ist Avi­va Glaser. “We want to move for­ward with home­grown sources of renew­able ener­gy, but by doing so, we don’t want to fuel the next inva­sive species catastrophe.”

John Upton is a sci­ence fan and green news bof­fin who tweets, posts arti­cles to Face­book, and blogs about ecol­o­gy. He wel­comes read­er ques­tions, tips, and inco­her­ent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.