Biofuels

Japan’s revised guidelines for biomass power generation are inadequate regarding climate change and biodiversity. We urge the speedy adoption of greenhouse gas emission limits and stronger criteria regarding the environmental sustainability of biomass fuel.

Congressional staffers had the opportunity to hear from experts about the climate, taxpayer, and food ramifications of biofuels and the biodiesel tax credit extension bill (H.R. Bill 3301) currently moving through Congress.

Following Mighty Earth’s Forests + Food ≠ Fuel event at SouthFace in May, event attendees and volunteers wanted to do more than just raise awareness on biofuels—they wanted to act!

Food-based biofuels fail to address climate crisis and contribute to environmental destruction in the U.S. and around the world

Last week, more than 80 concerned citizens gathered in Atlanta to join Mighty Earth, Dogwood Alliance, and more than 20 co-hosting organizations to mobilize against dirty bioenergy. The event, Forests + Food ≠ Fuel, featured a screening of the documentary Burned, an audience discussion on the environmental impact of burning food-based biofuels, and a call-to-action for Congress to oppose dirty biofuels.

A new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office has found that the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) has failed to meet its economic or environmental goals. In response, former Congressman Henry Waxman, now chairman of Mighty Earth has released a statement

The full carbon footprint of biodiesel is as bad or worse than that of dirty fossil fuels.

Through both in-person and digital deliveries, all of the 2020 presidential candidates are hearing from more than 50 Iowa-based groups and leaders and more than 91,000 people concerned about the damage that our nation’s biofuels addiction is causing the environment.

New data released today by the National Wildlife Foundation shows that the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) has led to increased climate emissions as well as dramatic, unsustainable habitat loss in Iowa and throughout the United States.

Today, environmental advocacy organization Mighty Earth launched a new effort to urge the 2020 presidential candidates and political leaders to reject food-based biofuels as a viable solution to climate change.

Mighty Earth is proud to join nearly 20 organizations from around the world in asking the EPA to ensure that biofuel mandates are set at levels that don’t drive the destruction of native habitats.

You’re Invited! The Environmental and Climate Case for RFS Reform – Congressional Briefing presented by the Safe Climate Caucus

All eyes were on Europe this month, as the European Union released its much anticipated, long-negotiated rewrite of renewable energy policy.

A major report, just issued by the EPA, includes a sweeping condemnation of U.S. biofuel policy.

Mighty Earth, ActionAid USA, Clean Air Task Force and Sierra Club announced the launch of an advertising campaign publicizing the environmental destruction caused by U.S. policies that mandate biofuel production.

Earlier this year, Mighty Earth chairman Henry Waxman, the former Congressman and environmental champion from California, wrote to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with a warning: tread carefully with biofuels policy.

Scott Pruitt today declared the burning of trees for energy as carbon neutral.

The new bill seeks to end mandates for biofuels linked to deforestation and climate change pollution and extend support for truly sustainable biofuels. The legislation boosts efforts in Congress to reform the Renewable Fuel Standard in ways that benefit the environment.

Major conservation and environmental groups are calling for a scale-back of biofuel mandates, something that would benefit refiners like Philadelphia Energy Solutions.

A new investigation, “Burned: Deception, Deforestation, and America’s Biodiesel Policy” by the organizations Mighty Earth and ActionAid USA has found that biodiesel is not the environmentally friendly, “green” fuel claimed by industry producers.

This was a case where Trump should have done the right thing for the wrong reasons, but he managed to do the wrong thing anyway.

It’s a shame that Pruitt is backing away from his agency’s proposal to reduce biodiesel levels. We don’t agree with the EPA on much of anything, but we did agree on this.

The National Biodiesel Board offered Congressional members and staff free French fries today, but the group’s touting of used cooking oil misrepresents the real-world reality of biodiesel production. Environmentalists and their animal ‘friends’ attended the event to share information about the strong links between biodiesel and deforestation.

A growing coalition of environmental and anti-hunger groups, including former Congressman Henry Waxman, now chairman of Mighty Earth, urged the EPA today to reconsider and reduce mandates for conventional, food-based biofuels. Over 40,000 individuals also commented to EPA in support of reducing volume levels.

A proposal released last week by the EPA includes troubling news for tropical forests and other ecosystems threatened by encroaching industrial agriculture.

“Just because Congress says burning trees for electricity is carbon neutral doesn’t mean that it is. This provision repeats some of the same mistakes in the Renewable Fuel Standard that has had massive unintended negative consequences for forests, the climate, and consumers. By incentivizing dirty energy, this policy will disadvantage truly clean renewables like wind and solar. "

BREAKING: the proposed amendment to federal legislation that would incentivize burning of biomass by declaring it “carbon-neutral” seems to be officially dead.

Today, the Sierra Club released a report analyzing a proposal from Portland General Electric (PGE) to convert the state’s last coal plant in Boardman, Oregon into one of the world’s largest biomass facilities. The report finds that the proposal may pose major implications for air quality, forest health, and carbon reduction goals.

Former California Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman is criticizing language in the fiscal 2017 Interior Department and U.S. EPA spending bill he said would amount to a "loophole" that ignores carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of biomass for energy.