Biofuels can help solve climate change, especially with a carbon tax | John Abraham

We’re not yet optimizing biofuel production for both economic and environmental factorsFacing the reality of human-caused warming, we now look for ways to reduce the problem so that future generations will not inherit a disaster. So, what can we do now to help the future? The easiest answer is to use energy more wisely and quit wasting our precious resources. Second, we can increase our use of clean energy, particularly wind and solar power. These are great starts but we will still need some liquid fuels and for those, we can make decisions about the best fuels for the environment. There has been extensive conversation recently about biofuels and how they may help solve the climate problem. Agriculture is being challenged by increasing food demand, and changes to regional climate. On top of this, most plans to combat climate change rely on the agricultural sector to increase carbon storage in soils, and to produce raw materials for the large-scale production of biofuels and power. Modeling studies like ours attempt to predict on a farm-by-farm basis where the best opportunities for biofuel crop production and soil carbon storage lie, how much they might cost, and how those two goals trade off. Our results suggest that biofuels can have a wide range of environmental outcomes depending on exactly where and how those crops are grown, but climate benefits can be increased at relatively low cost. Continue reading...