Biofuels impact on water quality

The environmental impact of ethanol production, from University of Cornell

"The current focus on ethanol production is
centered on the food versus fuel debate.
While this is understandable, there are
serious environmental consequences from
the implementation of current ethanol
policies, throughout the world. Much of the
current environmental concern focuses
either on habitat loss or GHG emission
during land clearing and tillage operation.

We conclude that continuing the current
direction in ethanol production, particularly
with the focus remaining on grain and sugar
crops as primary feedstocks, has serious
implications for coastal water quality and
will almost certainly worsen, already serious
hypoxic conditions in many locations around
the world".

Killing fish with corn and cows

How does a US govt requirement to grow ethanol end up killing fish?

Put down that Quarter Pounder the fish get it, via WSJ

That’s a conclusion of a new scientific paper that looks at what it would take to produce the amount of ethanol required by the federal government in coming years.

To hit the 2015 ethanol mandate, a lot of land currently set aside in conservation programs and other land used for soybean cultivation would need to be converted to corn. Growing all that corn means more fertilizer, which will feed into the Mississippi River and end up in the Gulf of Mexico.

The increased use of nutrient-enriched crop production is a key cause of “harmful algal blooms … oxygen depletion … and overall fisheries habitat decline,” the authors point out. In other words, to grow enough corn to meet renewable fuel standards will mean increasing the “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico.