Oil is called the ‘black gold’ because it is the most lucrative natural resource in the world and almost single-handedly supports the economies of several countries including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, and Venezuela. Despite the huge economic incentives in finding reliable alternatives to fossil fuels such as oil, the success has been quite limited so far due to the complex challenge of not only coming up with a reliable alternative but also making it available at competitive prices. Fossil fuels have proven to be tough competition due to economies of scale and consumer habits and many observers have given up hope that fossil fuels will ever have a reliable alternative but the critics of renewable energies are giving up hope too soon. Not only renewable energies have progressed significantly in technological terms but changing social, political, and economic trends also point towards the incoming reign of renewable technologies.
One of the arguments made by skeptics of renewable energies is that technologies like biofuels have serious shortcomings such as the use of agricultural crops because it only leads to an increase in food prices. But the law of economics dictates that prices only increase when supply is outstripped by demand and moreover, there is not only one food crop that can be used for biofuel production. In fact, there are several crops that can be used for biofuel production such as corn-based ethanol, switch grass, and waste residue. One can always choose the crop which is in abundant supply and in addition, genetically-modified crops yield far greater productivity than conventional crops given a particular area (Ehrenberg). It may also be that the concerns are exaggerated because even though some media channels blamed biofuel for global rise in food prices during the period 2007-2008, later studies concluded that the picture was far more complex and the culprits behind rising food prices included higher demand from emerging economies, rising energy prices, lower agricultural yields due to droughts, depreciating U.S. currency, and speculation in commodities markets (Kline, Dale and Lee). Thanks to advancements in agricultural technologies, biofuel production may not only be sustainable in the long term without serious side effects such as rising food prices but also be competitive to fossil fuel costs.
Another benefit of biofuels is that they are not location dependent and they are also sustainable unlike oil reserves that are location specific and can’t be renewed. Some critics worry that biofuels are not environmentally friendly either because huge amount of water resources will have to be used if it gains global acceptance and water is also a scarce commodity. One option as suggested by an analytical study done in Australia may be to conduct biofuel production only in in countries with huge water resources. Since developing countries can grow agricultural crops cheaply, agricultural lands in developed countries could be devoted to biofuel production (Bryan, King and Wang).
Biofuel production will also be cleaner but new technologies continue to be developed that are cleaner than the existing ones and one example is municipal waste-based ethanol production which produces about 60 to 80 percent less greenhouse gas than corn-based ethanol production (Ehrenberg). Some critics worry about potential deforestation but U.S. Agricultural Department estimated that only 21 million acres is used worldwide to produce biofuel feedstock. Scientists and researchers believe that about 500 million of the 3.7 billion acres of global cropland is still idle which means biofuel production can easily be expanded to meet global energy needs without any threat of deforestation (Kline, Dale and Lee).
If biofuel didn’t have a bright future, we would not see some of the leading investors betting on the field including co-founder of Sun Microsystems, Vinod Khosla who claims that any alternative to fossil fuels has to be feasible in fastest growing economies like India and China and biofuels will be cheap and abundant by 2030 to comletely replace gasoline. Biofuel producers expect to be competitive with the crude oil at around $45 a barrel (Rotman).
Even the U.S. Government is positive about the prospects of bioguels which is why it passed The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 which sets a target of 36 billion gallons of biofuel by 2022 (Huffaker). A study found the U.S. Government subsidies will go a long way in improve the economics of biofuels (Santos, Barker and Zelinke). The U.S. Government is also interested in promoting alternatives to oil such as biofuels because it will not only help the country achieve energy independence but will also improve its global political leverage.
It is now clear that biofuels has a serious prospect of turning out to be the next energy source of choice because not only will it be competitive, sustainable, and cleaner but will also appeal to the public concerned with global warming. Biofuels technology has improved significantly and will only improve further in the future which should help address some of the concerns expressed by the critics such as deforestation and rising food prices. The U.S. Government has also thrown its weight behind renewable energies such as biofuel which is quite encouraging.
- Bryan, Brett A., Darran King and Enli Wang. “Biofuels agriculture: landscape‐scale trade‐offs between fuel, economics, carbon, energy, food, and fiber.” GCB Bioenergy December 2010.
- Ehrenberg, Rachel. “The Biofuel Future.” Science News 1 August 2009: 24-29.
- Huffaker, Ray. “Impacts of Biofuels on Water Supply: Proposed Cures May Worsen the Disease.” Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm & Resource Issues 2010: 48-51.
- Kline, Keith, et al. “In Defense of Biofuels, Done Right.” Issues in Science & Technology Spring 2009: 75-84.
- Rotman, David. “The Price of Biofuels. .” Technology Review Jan/Feb 2008: 42-51.
