The use of biofuels in America and around the world have been on the rise in recent years. There has been a shift to use a lot of biodiesel in the U.S. because Congress wants to mitigate the climate change problem as much as possible that is becoming a threat to this great country. This is a good thing because both biodiesel and biofuels emit less particulate pollution than traditional fuels. I think that biofuels are a good thing because they will emit less pollution and for biodiesel there is no work that needs to be done to the motors for them to run off this other fuel.
By using biofuels it will allow us to prolong the use of oil by just that much more because it will eventually run out. Biofuels will lower the demand of importing foreign oil. If we don't have to rely on countries so much for our oil it is always a good thing. With an increase in the demand for grain crops farmers will be producing greater quantities of it. The farmers will be making more money and during these economic hard time that is always a good thing. With America being one of the World's leading producers in grain it will cause a lot of other countries to depend on us to get their grain to be used for biofuel. The fact that biofuels are a renewable resource is by far one of the best reasons to continue to grow this fuel and make it better and better.
There are some drawbacks to the use of biofuels. Because there is becoming more and more of a demand for crops to be produced for the use of biofuels, there has been an increase in the cost of those crops for other purposes. It costs farmers more to feed cattle with the grain that they have to buy. Also because America is one of the leading producers of grain in the World there will be less of it available to countries that depend on us to export the grain. Third World countries that have very little food of their own will receive less of it from us because of biofuels. The increase in demand of biofuels could result in a much more of a monoculture crop.
There are both good effects and bad effects from the use of biofuels. I believe that they are a good thing especially for this country. Especially if we can lower our dependence on foreign oil.
Your topic interests me because I recently wrote on this topic for another class. I would like to add, that there are some other drawbacks associated with biofuels. Most significantly, they utilize a vast amount of land and water resources. Increased land use for the growth and development of biofuels takes away land for the production of food that can be used to feed people. This can result in increased food prices throughout the world, as food prices would reflect the availability of crops for consumption, which would be diminishing as biofuel crop growth increases. Water resources are also depleted by this energy system, because the growth of these crops requires a huge amount for growth and irrigation. This draws away from many water sources adversely affecting people and other agricultural practices that rely on the same water. Ultimately, I feel that biofuel can present itself as a good transition fuel from oil, but it can in no way replace it.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I don't think that grain based biofuels are necessarily going to the answer. As much as I hate to say it, it is more efficiently used as a food product than as a fuel due to the amount of energy lost from growing the crop to producing the fuel. This is not to say that grain based biofuels are not a beneficial substitute for the time being, I just think its hard to find feasibility for the long term.
ReplyDeleteCertain types of biofuels do make sense, but on the whole they are unsustainable. Converting our nation's transport fleet to biodiesel, especially if made from waste vegetable oil, would go a long way toward reducing our carbon emissions. Algal ethanol and bioethanol from crop byproducts also could make sense if technologies improve.
ReplyDeleteLawmakers should be very wary that not all biofuels are created equal, though. The energy returned on energy invested is poor with many of these technologies, and a host of other problems make them less sustainable than advertised.