There is neither a simple nor single means of comparing biofuels and petroleum-derived fuels over their full life cycles and over their entire suites of environmental effects, yet decades of research on this topic have revealed that some ways of producing biofuels from certain feedstocks offer distinct advantages over others and thus have greater potential for providing environmental benefits over petroleum-derived fuels. Hence, the environmental benefits and negative effects over the life cycle of petroleum-based fuels and biofuels would have to be compared against each other so that policymakers can decide which tradeoffs are acceptable. Each stage in a biofuel’s life cycle uses nonrenewable resources and generates emissions that affect land, air, and water. Biofuels, too, have their environmental costs (NRC, 2003, 2010a), but displacing petroleum-based fuels with biofuels can reduce the nation’s dependence on imported oil and potentially reduce overall environmental harm (Robertson et al., 2008). Petroleum extraction, transport, refining, and combustion have many known negative environmental effects, including disruption of sensitive ecological habitats and high greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions. Environmental Effects and Tradeoffs of Biofuels
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