Global Warming News

SACRAMENTO—Many alternative fuels designed to wean America off of oil will cause a whole host of other problems and increase global warming emissions, according to a report released today by Environment California.   The report cites liquid coal, corn ethanol and soy biodiesel as the worst examples; all of which have 50% - 100% greater relative emissions than conventional gasoline.   The report shows that the best solution to lowering emissions from vehicles is to combine the approaches that offer the greatest environmental benefits. For example, an efficient plug-in hybrid vehicle operating on electricity and cellulosic ethanol made from crop waste has emissions that are at least 70% lower than gasoline.

“Today’s headlines are telling us that we must move away from oil as a transportation fuel,” said Jason Barbose of Environment California.  “We cannot afford to make other problems worse in our quest to reduce our dependence on oil,” he added.  

The report; Beyond Oil: The Transportation Fuels That Can Help Reduce Global Warming, evaluates the leading contenders in the alternative fuels race, with a specific focus on their impact on global warming and the environment.  Key findings include:

• Liquid Coal Fuel - Liquid produced from coal creates at least 80 percent more global warming pollution than gasoline. The fuel starts with a high-carbon energy source and requires heavy processing.

• Corn Ethanol - High-volume corn ethanol production does not result in lower global warming emissions than gasoline. In fact, full life-cycle emissions from corn ethanol may be twice as high as gasoline, when secondary land-use impacts are taken into account.  The increased production of corn ethanol has also caused a host of other problems including competition for cropland used for food and water pollution.  

• Biodiesel - Biodiesel from soybeans, the most common feedstock for biodiesel, is at least 50 percent more polluting than conventional diesel and, like corn ethanol, can cause many other problems associated with high intensity agriculture.  The report also found that life-cycle global warming pollution emissions from biodiesel can be as much as 98 percent less than conventional diesel, if the diesel is made from waste cooking oil.  

• Natural gas reduces air pollution and global warming pollution compared with gasoline vehicles. But natural gas fueling infrastructure is expensive and domestic supplies of natural gas are both finite and increasingly constrained.

• Hydrogen has long been touted as the transportation fuel of the future. But the environmental impacts of hydrogen depend greatly on how it is produced, and hydrogen-powered vehicles are still a long way from being available to American consumers.

• Plug-in hybrids and all-electric vehicles -  Because electric motors are far more efficient than internal combustion engines, vehicles that use electricity almost always produce less global warming pollution than gasoline vehicles, even when the electricity used to fuel them is generated from coal.  Plug in hybrids powered by the average U.S.  The benefits are far greater when vehicles are fueled with renewably-generated electricity. electricity mix are 50% less polluting than gasoline.

• Cellulosic Ethanol - Producing cellulosic ethanol from certain feedstocks can reduce global warming pollution. Cellulosic ethanol made from crop waste, prairie grass grown on abandoned or marginal cropland can have emissions well below that of gasoline.

America needs a comprehensive strategy to reduce global warming pollution from transportation. Low-carbon transportation fuels can play an important part in that strategy.

To reduce global warming pollution from transportation, America must reduce the amount of miles we drive, use more efficient vehicles, and shift to lower-carbon fuels. A low-carbon fuels strategy for the United States should:

1) Combine the most promising approaches to maximize environmental benefits.America should work to make vehicles more fuel efficient, reduce liquid fuel consumption by increasing the use of electricity (in the short-term, through plug-in hybrids), and replace a significant share of the liquid fuel that remains with lower carbon options. Such a comprehensive approach can slash per-mile global warming pollution from vehicles by as much as 74 percent compared to conventional gasoline vehicles.

2) Develop fuels with long-term potential. Natural gas, for example, has the potential to reduce global warming pollution in the short term, but has little long-term potential as a transportation fuel due to limited domestic gas supplies. Some sources of cellulosic ethanol have comparatively lower life-cycle global warming emissions, but technological breakthroughs and infrastructure developments will be required before the fuel becomes widespread. Public policy should emphasize the development of infrastructure to support promising long-term fuel options over those with only short-term potential.

3) Set stringent environmental standards and mitigate environmental and social impacts. America will be more likely to reduce the environmental impacts of transportation fuels if we set stringent environmental standards for those fuels. The first step should be to establish a low-carbon fuel standard that encourages the development warming emissions. Standards should also be developed and implemented to mitigate the impacts of alternative fuels on the quality of our air, water and natural ecosystems.

Achieving large reductions in global warming pollution from cars and light trucks in the years to come will require strong public policies. Necessary steps include:

• Adopting requirements to lower the carbon content of transportation fuels and rejecting policies to promote fuels that would make the problem worse.

• Requiring that by 2020, all new vehicles are capable of using lower carbon fuels, whether electricity or biofuels.

• Supporting additional research into cultivation techniques for cellulosic feedstock and into technologies for converting cellulosic feedstocks, especially waste, into fuel.

• Improving vehicle fuel economy and pursuing measures to reduce total driving. These measures would further cut global warming emissions and reduce our vulnerability to rapid changes in the global petroleum market.