Food Security and Sustainable Aviation Fuel
There isn't enough cropland in the world to sustain the human population AND provide fuel to all the airplanes and trucks at the same time.
There isn't enough cropland in the world to sustain the human population AND provide fuel to all the airplanes and trucks at the same time.
The Senate passed the deceitfully named Inflation Reduction Act budget reconciliation bill on Sunday. You know the contents of a bill are really bad when the Senators hide behind such a misleading name as that.
Monday I was reading this article in Oilprice.com that highlighted a feature of the bill that U.S. fuel retailers warn would reduce the supply of biodiesel and renewable diesel as all those fuels compete for feedstock. Of course, since used cooking oil is very limited in supply, the feedstock these fuels will be clamoring for is oil crops - mainly soybeans. The bill includes higher tax credits for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) than for renewable and biodiesel. If you’ve been reading this newsletter very long you know I believe renewable diesel is already on a course to cause food shortages and damage many ecosystems around the world even before we begin fueling our airlines with renewable jet fuel.
Inflationary Pressure Through Higher Fuel Costs
The Oilprice.com article continues:
The bill extends the existing biodiesel and renewable diesel tax credit, but it also provides a higher tax credit for the production of SAF.
This higher tax credit for the greener aviation fuel would reduce the availability of renewable diesel and biodiesel, associations of U.S. fuel retailers say. The lower availability of renewable diesel would further increase the cost of everyday household goods which are transported by trucks, NATSO, a national trade association representing travel plaza and truck stop owners and operators, warned after the bill was unveiled.
So much for the “Inflation Reduction Act” living up to its name. Also, remember that someone is funding those tax credits, either through our taxes or through the shrinking of the value of our currency by the government printing money.
Environmental Groups Concerned about Destruction of Ecosystems
The Oilprice.com article continues:
But fuel marketers and some environmental campaigners say that higher incentives for SAF production compared to the tax credits for biodiesel would displace renewable diesel production and could also lead to a loss of land and biodiversity because of the expected higher demand for lipid-based feedstocks. (emphasis added).
The International Council for Clean Transportation (ICCT) is also concerned and published this statement calling for a cap on foods used in fuel production:
Setting a lipid cap would prevent California’s BBD market shifting from one that is primarily waste-oil based to one increasingly reliant on food-based fuels with the highest sustainability risks. A cap would avoid global displacement of vegetable oils that would contribute to negative impacts on global food and feed markets, deforestation, cropland expansion, rising greenhouse gas emissions, and biodiversity loss. (Emphasis added).
"Increasing the global supply of vegetable oils, directly or indirectly, necessarily comes at the cost of forests and other natural lands," ICCT said in a report earlier this month, noting that a displacement of vegetable oils would contribute to food price spikes and deforestation.
I realize the people who are pushing the agenda of having jet fuel and motor fuel come from food crops do not realize there is not enough farmland in the entire world to fulfill their dreams. The only way to get more cropland is by plowing down forest and rangeland, meadows and pastures. Surely this is not what people who care about nature really want.
I just don’t understand why none of them are asking the question before barging ahead with policy that is guaranteed to fail. But worse than that, it is a policy that will wreck ecosystems and food supplies as it crashes and burns.