Basics on Cellulosic Ethanol and Agrofuels

• “Next Gen­er­a­tion Bio­fu­els”: Burst­ing the New “Green” Bub­ble Jan­u­ary 15, 2009.
  This let­ter chal­lenges unre­al­is­tic promis­es from an unsus­tain­able indus­try. The groups orig­i­nat­ing the let­ter include Glob­al Jus­tice Ecol­o­gy Project, Rain­for­est Action Net­work, Food First, Fam­i­ly Farm Defend­ers, Grass­roots Inter­na­tion­al, ETC Group, Insti­tute for Social Ecol­o­gy, Heart­wood, Dog­wood Alliance, Ener­gy Jus­tice Net­work, and Native For­est Coun­cil.
• Biofuel/Sustainability Papers by UC-Berke­ley’s Dr. T. W. Patzek

  Mass and Ener­gy Bal­ances of the Switch­grass-Ethanol Cycle. July 9, 2008.
  By Dr. Tad Patzek. Sci­en­tif­ic, peer reviewed study tak­ing a crit­i­cal look at the net ener­gy returns and some envi­ron­men­tal impacts. Clear, con­cise and only 10 pages.

  Ethanol Pro­duc­tion Using Corn, Switch­grass, and Wood. March 2005.
  By Pimentel and Patzek. Sci­en­tif­ic, detailed, and com­pre­hen­sive look into ethanol from switch­grass. The report is rough­ly 30 pages.

• The True Cost of Agro­fu­els: Impacts on Food, Forests, Peo­ple and Cli­mate 2007.
  This report is one of the most com­plete analy­sis of the mul­ti­ple aspects of Agro­fu­els cov­er­ing issues of soil, cor­po­rate con­trol and con­sol­i­da­tion, water, plan­ta­tions and pulp mills, fer­til­iz­er usage, Genet­ic Engi­neer­ing, trans­porta­tion, and cli­mate change. The con­clu­sion flesh­es out path­ways and solu­tions to meet­ing the chal­lenges for which agro­fu­els are a false solution.
• Get­ting Real About Bio­fu­els by Rain­for­est Action Network
• Agro­fu­els: Towards a Real­i­ty Check in 9 Key Areas June, 2007.
  Report brought to you by the Transna­tion­al Insti­tute, which includes sev­er­al Euro­pean groups. The Report asks 9 key ques­tions and explores them with 30 pages of qual­i­ty mate­r­i­al with many ref­er­ences and an inter­na­tion­al scope.
• Bio­fu­els: Is the Cure Worse Than the Dis­ease Sep­tem­ber 12, 2007.
  Report brought to you by the OECD and the Round Table on Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment, co-authored by Richard Doorn­bosch and Ronald Steen­blik. The 50 Page Report is tech­ni­cal and does an excel­lent job look­ing into the eco­nom­ics and gov­ern­ment poli­cies on bio­fu­els. The report looks at the cur­rent state of bio­fu­els as well as its ulti­mate tech­ni­cal poten­tial, com­plete with charts, graphs and ref­er­ences to oth­er studies.
• A Bridge to Some­where?
  By Tom Philpott, 15 Dec 2006

“If bio­fu­els are used as a way to lever­age con­ser­va­tion efforts, then we sup­port them, with caveats; if they’re a way to dis­tract from con­ser­va­tion efforts, as cur­rent­ly seems the case, then we say the hell with ’em. Conserve!”