A Bright Future With Biofuels
Biofuels have become increasingly more and more politically controversial. Biofuels are a key step in reducing dependence on foreign fossil fuels. The U.S. like many other countries has relied on oils from foreign countries for too long. Biofuels can be grown locally and help reduce the amount of foreign oil used. Using biofuels to make our own fuels will lead the U.S. to have a secure energy future, and will provide a secure source of fuels. In 2011, the U.S. saved $49.7 billion dollars that would have been spent on foreign oils.
The field of biofuels has given the opportunity for the creation of jobs. Not only jobs, but the need for crops to make biofuels has boosted the economies of farming states like Iowa. In 2012 about 400,000 full time jobs related to ethanol production were created. That was only for ethanol, not to include all the jobs for all the other categories of biofuels. The price of food also becomes a major concern to some people. However, as stated before, not all biofuels use food sources.
There is much controversy going on in Washington about biofuels, mainly corn ethanol. The controversy has to deal with EPA mandates of ethanol production. The EPA has set up a quota that ethanol companies must reach. These quotas put pressure on ethanol companies to meet demands and can have unintended consequences.
Social Conflicts
The thing that most people have a problem with about biofuels are that they come from food sources. However this is not completely true, only first generation do. Corn used for ethanonl only counts for about 40% of corn grown in America. There are also many advances that help boost corn production, for example genetically modified corn can be used to help increase corn harvests lowering corn prices and still providing corn to be eaten. Another problem is the allocation of resources. To grow crops to supply a nation with both food and fuel is incredibly difficult. There have been numerous problems with the amount of water and fertile land necessary to grow such a large amount of crops. However not all biofuels use food supplies. Second,third, and fourth generation biofuels use non-food sources.
Political Conflicts
Economic Conflicts
Conflicts
