Bioenergy--electricity and fuels derived from plant or animal-based materials--is increasingly being touted as a key global warming solution. If developed in a sustainable way, bioenergy does have the potential to produce both electricity and fuel with fewer risks than those associated with oil, coal, and nuclear technologies. But a rapid global expansion of bioenergy development could have unwanted environmental and economic consequences. If bioenergy is to become a part of our low-carbon future, farmers, producers, policy makers, and consumers will all have to be smart from the start.

That is why the Union of Concerned Scientists has launched its new Smart Bioenergy initiative. No other organization has the scientific expertise to sort through competing options for addressing these complex issues and to translate them into practical, responsible solutions for decision makers and the public. Our engineers and scientists who specialize in agriculture, climate, energy, and vehicles issues are uniquely situated to serve as guides through the lifecycle of bioenergy from seed to sedan.

Through our new report, Biofuels: An Important Part of a Low-Carbon Diet, UCS is working to ensure that bioenergy policies throughout the nation include environmental safeguards that prioritize production methods and materials that produce the lowest amount of global warming pollution. In addition, we're highlighting that bioenergy is just one part of the whole solution—it must be pursued in conjunction with increases in energy efficiency, reduced energy demand through conservation, and reforms in transportation and land use policies.

The UCS bioenergy principles lay out these guiding standards and have been a great tool in our efforts to ensure that the low-carbon fuel standard being developed in California becomes a model for the nation. In addition, UCS analysts and advocates in Washington pushed to ensure that the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) in the recently-passed Energy Bill included strong provisions supporting sustainable bioenergy development. It would require the production of as much as 36 billion gallons of biofuels—such as ethanol and biodiesel—by 2022. Rather than make this standard a blank check for biofuels production that could negatively impact air, land, and water quality, Congress took some important steps forward, including:

• Giving oversight authority of the standard to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the appropriate agency for ensuring that air quality is not negatively affected under the Clean Air Act.
• Requiring the EPA to calculate the global warming pollution associated with growing biofuels—from clearing land, to fertilizing, to transporting the fuel to the vehicle.
• Creating a minimum 20 percent reduction in lifecycle global warming pollution for ethanol produced through today's methods, a 50 percent reduction for "advanced" biofuels using more sustainable techniques and a 60 percent reduction for so-called "cellulosic" biofuels—a potential high-yield, low-carbon source from pulpy materials such as grasses, wood-chips, or corn stalks.
• Including critical habitat and sustainability protections to ensure that we conserve biological diversity and protect wildlife habitat.

Ideally, all fuels would come under a more comprehensive low-carbon fuel standard, such as the one we are working on in California. This would ensure that other so-called "alternative fuels" such as liquid coal—which can release 80 percent more global warming pollution than gasoline—do not emerge to undermine the progress made by a smart biofuels policy. The Energy Bill RFS is, however, a solid step forward.

Unfortunately, the Energy Bill RFS is not the only version currently under consideration. A competing version, one stripped of vital environmental safeguards, has been added to the Senate-passed version of the Food and Farm Bill. Differences between the House and Senate Food and Farm Bills, including the RFS, are now being worked out by a conference committee. If it passes and is signed into law, it will trump the stronger RFS signed by the president on December 19, 2007. The Senate Food and Farm Bill version has a number of significant deficiencies, including:

• Giving no authority to the EPA or Clean Air Act to provide oversight and implementation of the program.
• Creating duplicative standards without any air quality protections.
• Including a baseline 20 percent reduction in global warming pollution, meaning little incentive to develop the kinds of high-yield, low-carbon fuels that we need.
• Including no mandate that the carbon lifecycle of these fuels be calculated, therefore allowing the production of biofuels that could generate more global warming pollution than gasoline.
• Containing minimal habitat protections.

As a first step toward a smart bioenergy policy for this nation, the House should ensure that the RFS is stripped from the final Food and Farm Bill and allow the Energy Bill version to become the law of the land.

The Food and Farm Bill is now in conference committee in the House of Representatives. While only those members of the House serving on the committee can change the bill and remove the weak Renewable Fuel Standard, all representatives can put pressure on committee members to adjust the bill accordingly. The entire House will vote on the Food and Farm Bill after it is out of committee. Please contact your representative today.