Studies: Ethanol production doesn’t affect land use changes

Ethanol Producer Magazine March 2009
By Erin Voegele
Web exclusive posted March 2, 2009, at 9:08 a.m. CST

A new study on indirect land use has found that the expansion of corn-based ethanol production to meet the renewable fuels standard (RFS) goal of 15 billion gallons per year by 2015 is unlikely to result in the conversion of non-agricultural lands in the U.S. or abroad. The study, titled “Land Use Effects of U.S. Corn-Based Ethanol,” was authored by Thomas Darlington of Air Improvement Resource Inc. Darlington presented his findings Feb. 24 at the National Ethanol Conference in San Antonio.

According to Darlington, previous studies of indirect land use have projected that land use changes account for up to 103 grams of carbon dioxide per mega joule of fuel that’s produced. In comparison, Darlington’s study found that land use impacts of expanding corn-based ethanol in the U.S. between 2001 and 2015 is zero.

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