Biofuels

  • BioFuels 101

    Swipe right to learn the basics about Biofuels & their impact on our communities.

  • What are biofuels?

    Biofuels come in three main categories, and are often proposed as alternatives to fossil fuels:

    • “Renewable” natural gas (RNG), or biogas: methane produced from decomposing manure, sewage, garbage, or other biological material.

    • Liquid biofuels: plant oils derived from crops like canola, corn, soy, coconut, and palm.

    • Biomass: wood pellets, wood chips, or other woody material burned for heat or to generate electricity.

  • What are the problems with biofuels?

    • Many biofuels have the same or worse greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as fossil fuels over their full life cycle (production through consumption).

    • Because of limited supply, buying any kind of liquid biofuel leads to increased palm oil production, which destroys tropical forests and soils and drives losses in biodiversity. These associated emissions and climate harms are ignored by official GHG emissions models.

    • Leaking methane from RNG processing and pipelines results in twice as many GHG emissions as current life-cycle accounting for RNG.

    • Our energy dollars go out of state instead of being invested in local energy production, weatherization, and efficiency.

    • Liquid biofuel crops replace food crops, putting stress on our food system.

    • Scaled-up biomass also increases deforestation and biodiversity loss. Importing biomass from afar causes additional transportation emissions.

    • Biofuels have the same or worse particulate pollution as fossil fuels, and biomass additionally emits harmful nitrogen oxides.

    • Pollution, deforestation, and other harmful effects of biofuels disproportionately impact frontline and Indigenous communities, who already bear more than their fair share of climate burdens.

  • What are we advocating for?

    We want heating policies that incentivize weatherization, energy conservation, heat pumps, and thermal networks, NOT biofuels.

  • Additional information on biofuels can be found below!

Additional Information & Resources!