Can biofuels rescue American prairies?


	Can biofuels rescue American prairies?

JICWyllie

8-18-2007 12:33 PM

203 views

tags:

environment, energy, biofuels, grasslands, i-policy, i-opportunities, i-risks

JICWyllie says:

Guess who is making all the money on this? Global agribusiness companies. Of course, if policy changes, they would lose a lot of money, too. How can people and birds fight such huge vested interests in perpetuating catastrophic policies? Where is Ralph Nader ... or someone?
See also - http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/CA81DCB3-F08B-4725-BECE-63F1B3043460/

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/87332b72-e9bf-473e-b6f1-e6f9263ddf09/3D0A2985-A91D-448B-9F6A-4DA5C1F76456/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg19526173.400-can-biofuels-rescue-american-prairies.html" href="http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg19526173.400-can-biofuels-rescue-american-prairies.html" style="font-size: 11px;">environment.newscientist.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg19526173.400-can-biofuels-rescue-american-prairies.html">Spurred on by rising oil prices and the 2005 Energy Policy Act, which demanded that at least 28 billion litres of ethanol be produced annually by 2012,</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg19526173.400-can-biofuels-rescue-american-prairies.html">expansion of corn ethanol is damaging soils and threatening wildlife, while doing little to cut US greenhouse gas emissions.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg19526173.400-can-biofuels-rescue-american-prairies.html">the corn boom will suck resources away from the development of cellulosic ethanol, extracted from fast-growing wild grasses. They claim that this technology could deliver cleaner energy while simultaneously helping to restore one of the country's disappearing ecosystems: the mixed grasslands of the American prairie.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg19526173.400-can-biofuels-rescue-american-prairies.html">As the cornfields expand, government grants aimed at encouraging farmers to set aside marginal land to protect soils and biodiversity are going unused.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg19526173.400-can-biofuels-rescue-american-prairies.html">This trend is especially damaging for birds that nest in the grass that grows on set-aside land. Sample estimates that 16 per cent of land protected under the set-aside scheme will be lost this year. </blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/3D0A2985-A91D-448B-9F6A-4DA5C1F76456/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>