by Lauren Leffer
February 16, 2022
https://www.inverse.com/science/us-clim ... cars-worse
Introduction
caltrek's comment: I remember the points presented in this article being made at least a decade ago, and yet policy makers still seem to have not gotten the message.(Inverse) EVERY TIME YOU FILL UP at the gas pump, 10 percent of that fuel comes from plants, not petroleum.
The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), a U.S. policy first enacted in 2005, requires companies to add ethanol, a combustible liquid derived from starch, to all American fuel. Initially, the policy was meant to boost ethanol production from various sources, but now almost 95 percent of the country's ethanol comes from corn.
The RFS program was meant to both reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil and minimize the environmental burden of the trillions of miles Americans collectively drive each year. Yet the actual environmental effects of the RFS have been hotly debated since its inception. A new study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences strengthens the argument that the policy has done more harm to the planet than good.
WHAT'S NEW — Researchers focused on the climate change costs of creating suitable farmland to grow all the corn that ethanol is derived from. These costs include the carbon released when grassland and forest are cut down to make way for intensive agriculture, the greenhouse gasses emitted by fertilizers applied to crops, and the consequences of soil erosion and water pollution.
The researchers compared real-world environmental data from 2008 and 2016 with models of what might've happened without the RFS. They found the policy changed the national landscape enough to make gassing up at least 25 percent more carbon-intensive than it would've been otherwise.
