- Posted by: Than Hansen
- Category: Alternative Energy
Stormy Days Ahead for Biofuels?
As if the current challenges related to biofuels (use of food crop, questions about genetic modification, to name a few) weren’t enough, according to many energy industry experts, academics, and climatologists, unpredictable and severe weather trends such as greater incidence of powerful storms, flooding, drought, etc, could restrain the potential growth of the biofuels market - recent storms in the Midwestern U.S. which have damaged a great deal of corn crop are but one prescient example. This threat to today’s biocrops (corn, potatoes, sugarcane, etc) is made plain by the fact that due to scale of production, for the most part the crops must be grown outdoors, and shows how delicate a growing dependence on cropland will be as biofuels gain market share (ethanol is currently at 6%, but expected to rise above 20% in coming years). Put simply, ethanol expert John M. Reilly, senior lecturer at MIT, states that “we are holding ourselves hostage to the weather.”
Although not to be taken lightly, this challenge simply provides further indication of what we already know, that we must develop feasibly sustainable alternatives to weather-dependent (and resource-depleting) sources for our fuel, and do so sooner than later. And aside from the need to develop sources and methods of production which are not dependent on the unpredictable weather that lies ahead, we must rapidly make affordable super-efficient vehicles the market standard. Only then will the world be able to accommodate the increasing demand for more fuel efficient cars and trucks, and more accessible and widespread public transportation. As oil prices increase, the calls for these alternatives will only become louder, so it’s important to act while we still have time.
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