While energy prices, energy security, and climate change are front and center in the national media, these issues are often framed to the exclusion of the broader issue of sustainability--ensuring that the production and use of biofuels do not compromise the needs of future generations by recognizing the need to protect life-support systems, promote economic growth, and improve societal welfare. Thus, it is important to understand the effects of biofuel production and use on water quality and quantity, soils, wildlife habitat and biodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions, air quality, public health, and the economic viability of rural communities.
Author(s): National Research Council, Patricia Koshel, Kathleen Mcallister
Series: Sustainability Science and Technology
Publisher: National Academies Press
Year: 2010
Language: English
Pages: 178
FrontMatter......Page 2
Preface and Acknowledgments......Page 8
Contents......Page 10
I: Introduction and Overview......Page 12
II: Policies Driving the Expansion of Biofuel Production......Page 16
III: Next-Generation Technologies and Feedstocks......Page 22
IV: Dimensions of Sustainability and Expanding Biofuel Production......Page 26
V: Going Forward......Page 40
Appendixes......Page 48
Appendix A: Workshop Agenda......Page 50
Appendix B: Workshop Participants......Page 56
Appendix C: Description of Agency Activities on Biofuels and Sustainability......Page 60
Appendix D: Brief Survey of State Biofuel Policies in the Upper Midwest......Page 112
Appendix E: Assessing the Sustainability of Biofuels: Metrics, Models, and Tools for Evaluating the Impact of Biofuels......Page 128
Appendix F: Selected Bibliography......Page 152
Appendix G: Biographical Information: Workshop Participants......Page 158
Appendix H: Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability......Page 176
