Biofuels- Impacts on U.S. Economy

In recent years, there has been a rise in public awareness of how humans affect the environment, particularly through the usage of fossil fuels. In this regard, biofuels have emerged as an environmentally benign substitute for biofuels that have the potential to lessen some unpleasant aspects of the production and use of fossil fuels. If production could be sustained for a long enough period of time, biofuels would offer many advantages over fossil fuels. According to the EPA's research of biofuels, they can produce fewer emissions than fossil fuels over a 30-year period. Additionally, domestic resources can be used to make biofuels rather than expensive imports from other countries, which will improve the trade balance. Their use also reduces the amount of fuel used to transport the producer to the consumer. Another benefit is that the country becomes less vulnerable to the impacts of supply distributions caused by constant wars and conflicts going on throughout the world (Condon, Klemick & Wolverton, 2013). In reducing the demand for the fuel it could also reduce the price, this would generate cost savings for the consumers.
However, while biofuels present a viable source of energy, they take away energy from other consumers. Biofuel products require feed-stocks that include crops that would form food products for human consumption or animal feed. Therefore, large-scale production requires huge amounts of biomatter meaning the process is inefficient. Using these crops for biofuels can lead to more land placed under agriculture which increases the effect of pollutants in the form of farm inputs and could raise food prices. Agriculture also has a large impact on finite resources such as water, land, and fertilizer that could be used in other areas such as food production. Depending on the situation, biofuels grown on land cleared from tropical forests such as soybeans in the Amazon and oil palm in Southeast Asia create a large problem with GHG emissions. Due to the low energy output, it requires using a large amount of fossils fuel to operate refineries required to make biofuels.
Biofuels can also result in higher crop prices. A 2013 study in showed that because of biofuel production, the prices of corn jumped by 50%. High crop prices ultimately get passed down to the consumer as producers face decreasing profit margins that means food prices will escalate as well. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 passed some economic incentives like grants, income tax credits, subsidies and loads to promote the research and development of biofuels. It now requires that 7.5 billion gallons of renewable fuel must be blended with gasoline every year by the Renewable Fuel Standard Act. Additionally, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 expanded the provisions of the Renewable Fuel Standard to increase biofuel production to 36 billion gallons by 2022. The act also worked to further emissions research funded by cash awards, grants, and subsidies to bio-refineries that displace more than 80 percent of fossil fuels used to operate the refinery.
Production of biofuels also creates an additional industry resulting in increased employment. In the US, jobs associated with biofuel production could reach 190,000 by 2022 and thus result in an economic multiplier effect of 807,000. Investments in biofuel refineries could reach $12.2 billion by 2022 and the direct economic output that includes capital investment, research, and development, technology royalties, processing operations are estimated to rise to $37 billion by 2022. In these circumstances, the US could see a reduction in costs associated with petroleum imports by over $350 billion making it the biggest decline in US history. Therefore, biofuel production has a huge impact and potential in the US economy.





Environmental Impacts
One of the main incentives to produce biofuels is to reduce the impact of greenhouse gas emissions and to reverse the effects of global warming produced by fossil fuels. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FOA), the production of biofuels and related products affects land, water, and biodiversity indirectly. A common perception is that growth of crops for biofuel production will have a direct effect on reducing the greenhouse gas emission because of their capacity to remove Carbon Dioxide (CO2) from the air. However, according to FOA, this approach ignores some variables as scientific studies portray that different feed-stocks would have a different impact on the environment. Although proponents market them as reducing greenhouse emissions, biofuels may increase the emissions due to the techniques used to produce the fuel such as the use of chemicals like Nitrous oxide often used in agriculture.
The process of producing biofuels also harms the soil through intensification of agricultural production and changes in usage of the land. The effects vary depending on the manner in which the land is cultivated. The overall effect is that the soil profile is disturbed which can lead it to loss of fertility and productivity (Delucchi, 2010). Infertile land cannot support any plant leave alone resource-intensive crops in an attempt to produce biofuels. The net economic cost of these practices is large tracts of unproductive land unsuitable for farming. Hence, the production of biofuels should be done in moderation to reduce the potential impact on nature.

Health and Safety Impacts
Large-scale production of biofuels requires large tracts of land from whence to source the biomatter. The commercialization reduces the land available for farming other crops. Some have criticized the increasing demand for biofuels and related products as playing a role in inflating food prices as well as aggravating the impacts of the ongoing famine. There has been pressure directed at the Environmental Protection Agency especially by the US legislators to abolish the agency's ethanol mandate which states that 40% of the corn produced in America be converted into biodiesel (Condon, Klemick & Wolverton, 2013). These practices have reduced the food resources available not only for Americans but also for the international communities that depend on America's food donations. As such, people suffer from the decreased nutrient variety and turn to processed food products some of which are known to cause cancer, thus harming their health.
The corn used to produce ethanol also has adverse health effects. When corn is burned to produce ethanol, it releases soot and other fine particles into the atmosphere. If a human inhales these particles for a prolonged duration, they cause respiratory and heart complications. Also, toxic inhalations of biofuels and related products result in increased cases of chronic bronchitis, asthma, respiratory problems, heart diseases even leading to premature deaths (Condon, Klemick & Wolverton, 2013). The resultant costs incurred by individuals are not compensated by the producers who distribute biofuel products but are paid by the public. The phenomenon places a huge burden on the economy since funds needed to improve social services instead cater to health complications of the affected victims.

Political Impacts
The production and usage of biofuels and related products have generated a heated and unending debate. The debate revolves around the viability of biofuels as an alternative to fossil fuels. One side supports the application of biofuels in that they reduce greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere leading to a probable lasting solution to global warming and climate change. The proponents of biofuels have primarily hailed from policy-making positions and have formulated energy policies addressing environmental issues including applying technologies that are friendly to the environment to raise energy sources as well as promote cleaner and efficient use of energy sources (Delucchi, 2010). The biofuel policy strives to encourage the use of renewable and sustainable fuels in the transport sector. These proponents claim that biofuels advance the prospects of emerging economic opportunities, protection of the environment, greater efficiency in various sectors of the economy, and creation of jobs.
However, the other side of the political divide views the production and usage of biofuels as destructive to nature. They argue that anything that interferes with nature harms the human race. Even though they agree on some forms of biofuel production such as the use of biomass, industrial waste, and plant cellulose, they vehemently oppose the use of corn to produce biofuel. They argue that burning corn does not only inflate the food prices but also emits more greenhouse gases than those produced by fossil fuels. They have put considerable pressure on the Environmental Protection Agency to discard its corn regulation mandating the use of corn to produce ethanol (Condon, Klemick & Wolverton, 2013). The most applicable political solution to the issue is focusing on the conversion of biomass, plant cellulose, and industrial waste into clean energy.

Social Impacts
The need for biofuel feed-stocks will intensify the large-scale cultivation of land. It will also force conversion of unutilized and existing cropland to biofuel feed-stocks farming. Farmers are likely to abandon their traditional subsistence food production practices to embrace the growing demand for biofuel feed-stocks (Delucchi, 2010). Although handsome potential benefits accompany this, it also has its demerits. Farmers will gain new techniques of farming to maximize the output and cultivation of previously unused land. In the short term, it will improve the economic welfare of the farmer, but in the long-run, these farming techniques are likely to have a negative effect on the soil. The soil profile will degrade leading to loss of productivity. The chemical residues in the soil used to improve yields also seep into water sources contaminating the water body and destroying biodiversity.
In conclusion, the main reason for adopting renewable energy sources is to avert the consequences accompanying the use of fossil fuels. Production and use of biofuels ought to be done at the minimal negative impact, necessitating the adoption of the cleanest forms of biofuel feed-stocks which are likely to have no or minimal adverse effects. The future of biofuel production lies in the usage of biomass, plant cellulose, and industrial waste as the feed-stocks as opposed to the current use of corn. These feed-stocks exhibit minimal environmental, social, safety and health issues as they are already considered waste products. Moreover, their use does not create pressure on land use, or the nature and the real overall economic saving on greenhouse gases emissions will be achieved.



References
Condon, N., H. Klemick, and A.Wolverton. 2013. "Impacts of Ethanol Policy on Corn Prices: A Review and Meta-Analysis of Recent Evidence." NCEE Working Paper 2013-05. (Accessed December 10, 2017)
Delucchi, M. A. (2010). Impacts of biofuels on climate change, water use, and land use. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1195(1), 28-45.
US Department of Energy, Alternative Fuels Data Center. Ethanol Fueling Station Locations. http://www.afdc.energy.gov/fuels/ethanol_locations.html (Accessed December 10, 2017)
US Environmental Protection Agency. 2010. Renewable Fuel Standard Program (RFS2) Regulatory Impact Analysis. (Accessed December 10, 2017).
5m Publishing. Environmental Impacts of Biofuels. (n.d.).
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