AAAS Policy Brief: Biofuels

Government Resources
Reports
Articles
AAAS Resources
Additional Resources

Government Resources

• Biofuels: Potential Effects and Challenges of Required Increases in Production and Use (GAO-09-446)
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory: Biomass Page
• USDA 2007 Farm Bill: Energy Page
• White House Fact Sheet: Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007
• Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee Summary: Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007
• Twenty In Ten: Strengthening America's Energy Security
  
• DOE Biofuels Initiative
• Energy Information Administration's Ethanol Page
• State Department Current Issues: "U.S.-Brazil Biofuels Pact Has Broad Significance" (11 March 2007)
• Keith Collins, Chief Economist, USDA. Statement On Biofuels Before the Senate Committee on Agriculture (10 January 2007)
• State Department Turning Point Reached in Developing Alternative Fuels Plan (December 11, 2007)

Reports

• National Research Council: Renewable Fuel Standard: Potential Economic and Environmental Effects of U.S. Biofuel Policy (2011)
• Biomass Crop Assistance Program Status and Issues (April 2011)
• Biofuels: Challenges to the Transportation, Sale, and Use of Intermediate Ethanol Blends (June 2011)
• Expanding Biofuel Production: Sustainability and the Transition to Advanced Biofuels: Summary of a Workshop (2010)
• Toward Sustainable Agricultural Systems in the 21st Century (2010)
• Policy Options for Reducing Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions fromU.S. Transportation: Special Report 307 (2011)
• Anticipated Indirect Land Use Change Associated with Expanded Use of Biofuels in the EU Institute for European Environmental Policy (November 2010)
• Using Biofuel Tax Credits to Achieve Energy and Environmental Policy Goals Congressional Budget Office (July 2010)
• Biofuels: Implications for Land Use and Biodiversity Ecological Society of America (January 2010)
• "Water Implications of Biofuels Production in the United States "National Academy of Sciences (February 2008)
• "Net energy of cellulosic ethanol from switchgrass" Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (January 2008)
• "Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007: A Summary of Major Provisions" Congressional Research Service (December 2007)
• "Selected Issues Related to an Expansion of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS)" Congressional Research Service (December 2007)
• "Biofuels in the 2007 Energy and Farm Bills: A Side-by-Side Comparison" Congressional Research Service (November 2007)
• "Ethanol and Other Biofuels: Potential for U.S.-Brazil Energy Cooperation" Congressional Research Service (September 2007)
• "The Rush to Ethanol: Not all Biofuels Are Created Equal" Food & Water Watch, the Network for New Energy Choices, and the Vermont Law School Institute for Energy and the Environment (July 2007)
• "Biofuels: DOE Lacks a Strategic Approach to Coordinate Increasing Production with Infrastructure Development and Vehicle Needs" Government Accountability Office (June 2007)
• "Sustainable Bioenergy: A Framework for Decision Makers" United Nations Report (May 2007)
• "Fuel Ethanol: Background and Public Policy Issues" Congressional Research Service (October 2006)
  

Articles

• "As Prices Rise, Farmers Spurn Conservation Program" New York Times (9 April 2008)
• "Biofuels Deemed a Greenhouse Threat" New York Times (8 February 2008)
• "Water Experts Worry Biofuel Will Crowd Out Food Crops" International Herald Tribune (17 August 2007)
• "How Biofuels Could Starve the Poor" Foreign Affairs (May/June 2007)
• "Switching to Biofuels Could Cost Lots of Green" Washington Post (8 June 2007)
• The New York Times: current coverage
• BBC Quick Guide: Biofuels

AAAS Resources

• Science: "Switch to Corn Promotes Amazon Deforestation" (14 December 2007)
• Science: "Carbon Mitigation by Biofuels or by Saving and Restoring Forests?" (17 August 2007)
• Science: Sustainability and Energy Special Issue (9 February 2007)
• Science: "Ethanol Can Contribute to Energy and Environmental Goals" (27 January 2006)
• Science: "The Biofuels Conundrum" Editorial by Donald Kennedy (27 April 2007)
• Betting On Biofuels (From March 2007 issue of Science and Technology in Congress)

Additional Resources

• Renewable Fuels Association
  
• Bioenergywikipedia
• MIT Technology Review: Biofuels
• Union of Concerned Scientists: Renewable Energy Page
  
• National Biodiesel Board: Biodiesel Fact Sheets
  

Last updated: October 12, 2011