Biofuel Policies: The Underground Limitation on Biofuels

U.S. energy policy has seen a dramatic shift toward renewable fuels within the last 10 years. While much research has been conducted in regards to U.S. biofuel policies, a significant arena of debate has been neglected. A key argument in favor of domestic biofuel production is that it is a renewable...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International advances in economic research 2015-03, Vol.21 (1), p.55-65
Main Authors: Barrowclough, Michael J., Geyer, L. Leon
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural chemicals
Agriculture
Alternative fuels
Biodiesel fuels
Biofuels
Biomass energy
Crops
Economic Growth
Economics
Economics and Finance
Energy policy
Energy Policy Act 2005-US
Farms
Fertilizers
Genetically altered foods
Grain
International Economics
Macroeconomics/Monetary Economics//Financial Economics
Microeconomics
Natural gas
Nitrogen
Nutrients
Potash
Raw materials
Renewable resources
Studies
Citations: Items that this one cites
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Summary:U.S. energy policy has seen a dramatic shift toward renewable fuels within the last 10 years. While much research has been conducted in regards to U.S. biofuel policies, a significant arena of debate has been neglected. A key argument in favor of domestic biofuel production is that it is a renewable path towards energy independence. However the inputs used in the production of biofuel feedstock, primarily fertilizer nutrients, are anything but renewable. With simple calculations, this paper shows that the U.S.’s current biofuel policy is heavily dependent on non-renewable nutrient inputs. Thus, the question of how renewable the current plant-based biofuels are needs to be asked.
ISSN:1083-0898
1573-966X
DOI:10.1007/s11294-015-9513-4