Feasibility of Large-Scale Biofuel Production

iofuels are widely seen as a feasible alternative to oil. Indeed, in 1995 the Clinton Administration proposed amendments to the Clean Air Act that would require gasoline sold in the nine most polluted US cities to contain additives from renewable sources, such as grain alcohol. This move, even if blocked by a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals in Washington, DC (Southerland 1995), has helped to focus attention on the question of whether research and development in biofuel production from agricultural crops should be increased (e.g., Abelson 1995). In Europe, similar fiscal and regulatory provisions have already been introduced (Chartier and Savanne 1992, Sourie et al. 1992). These policies assume that biofuels have the potential to reduce current dependence of industrialized societies on rapidly disappearing fossil energy stocks and that biofuels are desirable from an ecological point of view. But are these assumptions correct?

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