The use of biofuels like ethanol in the U.S. has expanded over the last decade under the assumption that they're better for the environment than gasoline. A new study by professor John DeCicco, Ph.D., at the University of Michigan, and colleagues is the latest to suggest that such assumptions are categorically false.

The research looked into the notion of whether or not biofuels are carbon neutral as they're often assumed to be. Carbon neutrality is perceived as the holy grail of the biofuel industry. It refers to a product that achieves net zero carbon emissions.

In the case of biofuels, the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard was based on the assumption that biofuels are carbon neutral.

In other words, this would mean that the corn or soybeans grown to produce biofuels remove as much carbon dioxide from the environment as is given off when the biofuels, such as ethanol, are burned.

Because of its supposed environmental advantage over gasoline, the Renewable Fuel Standard requires oil companies to increase ethanol in gasoline from 9 billion gallons in 2008 to 36 billion gallons in 2022.

The U.K. has also launched the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation, which requires 4.75 percent of suppliers' fuel to come from a biofuel like ethanol.¹ DeCicco told the Detroit Free Press:²

"Carbon neutrality has really just been an assumption … To verify the extent to which that assumption is true, you really need to analyze what's going on on the farmland, where the biofuels are being grown. People haven't done that in the past — they felt like they didn't need to …

I swallowed hard when I first, on a mathematical basis, uncovered the problem, which was about four years ago."

Ethanol Is Not Carbon Neutral

The problem that DeCicco is referring to is his finding that biofuels such as corn ethanol are not carbon neutral. In fact, they're associated with a net increase in carbon dioxide emissions; they're even worse than gasoline, according to DeCicco's research.

It turns out that even as environmentally beneficial grasslands have been plowed under to make room for more ethanol-producing crops (i.e., corn), the crops only offset 37 percent of carbon dioxide emissions produced by burning biofuels.³

Meanwhile, governments around the globe are continuing to roll out initiatives aimed at increasing the use of these supposedly renewable fuels. Britain, for instance, has plans to introduce a new type of gasoline called EIO, which contains a higher proportion of biofuel.⁴

Such plans have been made on false assumptions and flawed data and have the potential to worsen and speed environmental destruction. It should be noted that DeCicco's study was funded by the American Petroleum Institute, which obviously has reason to want to discredit the sustainability of biofuels.

However, the research reiterates what other researchers have found before — that growing more monocrops like corn and soy is causing the environment far more harm than good. DeCicco told the Detroit Free Press:⁵

"The name of the game is to speed up how much CO2 [carbon dioxide] you remove from the air … The best way to begin removing more CO2 from the air is to grow more trees, and leave them. Prior to settlement, Michigan was heavily forested.

A state like Michigan could do much more to balance out the tailpipe emissions of CO2 by reforesting than by repurposing the corn and soybeans grown in the state into biofuels. That is just a kind of shell game that's not working."

Is Ethanol Worse for the Environment Than Gasoline?

In 2014, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) released a report titled "Ethanol's Broken Promise," which reached similar conclusions as DeCicco's study — corn ethanol might be worse for the environment than gasoline.⁶ The report detailed four widely circulated myths about ethanol:

Myth 1: Ethanol Doesn't Increase Corn Prices

Scientists from the National Academies revealed that using so much corn for ethanol increased the price of corn by 20 percent to 40 percent between 2007 and 2009 (which is partly why anti-hunger organizations are angry about corn ethanol).

Myth 2: Corn Increases Yields Infinitely

Corn cannot magically increase yields indefinitely, as Big Ethanol would like people to believe. In order to increase yields, farmers are plowing up native grasslands to make more room for corn.

According to EWG, more than 8 million acres of grassland and wetlands have been converted to corn from 2008 to 2011, which released at least 80 million tons of carbon a year.

Myth 3: Corn Doesn't Need Water

Estimates showing corn ethanol's positive influence on the environment failed to take into account the water needed to grow the corn.

According to agricultural economists at Purdue University, when corn plants' water needs are taken into account, corn ethanol is worse for the environment than gasoline.

Myth 4: The Global Population Eats Too Much

More than 800 million people around the world don't have enough to eat, and when corn prices rise, it makes it difficult for even more people to feed their families. Nearly half of the corn grown in the U.S. goes toward fuel, while people are starving around the world.