Biofuel Industry Development
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The Costs and Benefits
The vast MTA transportation network is North America's largest, serving a population of 14.6 million people in the 5,000-square-mile area fanning out from New York City through Long Island, southeastern New York State, and Connecticut.
1. Employment in an Emerging NY Biodiesel Industry
The development of a viable biodiesel industry utilizing NY State inputs (feedstock) holds the potential to provide new employment opportunities, especially if businesses are able to secure feedstocks of waste vegetable oil to make biodiesel for fleet and building (space heating) use. This new industry could provide regionally-supplied biodiesel for fleet vehicles and heating oil, taking advantage of close access and transport costs below those of Midwest-derived BD. Farm-based production of BD can provide on-farm use by the farmer to directly reduce or remove the need for imported fuel for the operation, esp. when linked to diary production and the need for fodder.. Our work in NYC has focused on biodiesel over ethanol for several reasons: first, BD has many more urban applications than ethanol given the need to restrict auto use and replace auto-based travel with other forms of transit; second, corn-based ethanol requires real inputs as a 'heavy feeder', and can be viewed as 'a highly subsidized way to brew weak beer', for its energy content (calories by volume) is well below BD; third, the public health impacts from reducing particulates from current diesel use are a positive haealth benefit even if no changes in GHG emissions were present.
2. Environmental Costs and Benefits
Over the past few years, biofuels have come to be viewed as green andrenewable domestically-produced fuels capable of many things, from reducing our 'reliance on foreign oil' to helping cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Most recently these claims have all been called into question and deserve ongoing and careful scrutiny. Biofuels primarily include: [1] ethanol (produced in the U.S. primariliy from corn) and blended with gasoline for autos, and; [2] biodiesel (produced in the U.S. primarily from soybeans) and blended for fleet use (trucks, buses and diesel autos), construction and farm equipment and in heating oil. The present national 'policy' is to grow our way out of the box without either engaging in an overarching strategy or in balancing production with efficiency and demand reduction. Wendell Berry described this mindset eloquently in a recent essay, writing that "Our national faith so far has been: 'There's always more' ... People of intelligence and ability seem now to be genuinely embarrassed by any solution to any problem that does not involve high technology, a great expenditure of energy, or a big machine." ("Faustian Economics: Hell hath no limits", Harper's Magazine, May 2008.
Rather than seeking to answer the question of the number (percentage) that we can reduce present petrol demand from auto use, we could be asking a different (and broader) question: 'what transport system would minimize continued demand for oil, and within that how could the remaining balance be provided sustainably?' For homes, apartments and farms that question could be phrased 'how can demand reduction through energy efficiency open the way for new and existing buildings to aim for 'carbon neutrality' with renewable fuels aiding the effort. Given current European (EU) and British experience has shown, laying out percentage goals for BD use without first creating and certifying sustainable production of the feedstock is creating major problems: deforestation and land use changes in major producing nations (Brazil, Indonesia, etc.) are generating GHG emissions well above the promised benefits of such biofuels; U.S. subsidies to refiners mean that American taxpayers have directly subsidized fuels refined in the U.S. and exported to Europe to undercut their producers.
Blended with oil for spaceheating (homes and apartments), biodiesel does generate less carbon dioxide on a life cycle basis than No. 2 fuel oil. With roughly 50% of all New York City residents using oil for winter heating, nearly 3 million dwelling units rely on oil heat . Biodiesel has lower sulfur content than conventional fuels and reduces maintenance costs as well. Where waste oil is collected and converted into biodiesel, a new market for a waste product is created while reducing diversion to landfills or sewers. Biodiesel ratios from 2% (B2) to 20% (B20) provide a similar level of performance to standard heating oil while reducing GHG emissions. Critically important in an urban region, biodiesel use in fleets (esp. school buses) and in buildings in communities with high rates of respiratory disease (asthma, etc.) has a major impact.