Biofuels Best Management Practices

Everyone seems to have an opinion about biofuels. They’re either good for the environment or bad, depending on whom you ask. Some find them confusing – ethanol, biodiesel, biobutanol – what’s best? Shouldn’t we be using hydrogen? Rather than pick them apart and play “truth or consequences,” we’d like to encourage you to think about a different angle on biofuels: what is the best way to make them?

If we’re going to reduce our global warming emissions by 75 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 – as Oregon has committed to do – we’re going to need lots of very innovative strategies to get there. Biofuels already are, and will continue to be, a solution. The challenge that lies before us is how to make them in the most sensible and sustainable way. To that end, the Oregon Environmental Council has drafted a set of guidelines or “best practices” for growing biofuel feedstocks and refining them into usable fuel. 

We’ve been an advocate for regionally produced biofuels for several years and worked with a coalition of businesses, municipalities, and non-profit groups to win passage of an Oregon renewable fuels standard in the 2007 legislative session. OEC believes it is imperative that the biofuels industry demonstrate its commitment to the most environmentally and socially favorable practices.

The guidelines are not intended to add stringent requirements or additional burdens to biofuels production. Instead, they are intended to make the various impacts of biofuels production transparent, so that the public and particularly policymakers will be assured that Oregon farmers, foresters, and fuel producers are moving along a sound and reasonable path toward low-impact, climate-friendly, and sustainable biofuels production and use. Additionally, challenges in achieving a guideline should be publicly transparent so that consumers can make informed choices.

The fight against global warming will have many faces. Biofuels are helping to drive Oregon’s economy and reduce carbon emissions at the same time. What’s important to keep in focus is the way we grow and produce biofuels – helping protect our air, water, soil, and people.