"When the Bush administration and Congress required gasoline refiners to blend in 15 billion gallons of corn-based ethanol by 2015, they made the impossibly rosy assumption that American farmers would always enjoy good weather. But as every farmer knows, years with perfect growing conditions are uncommon and getting more rare."..."If this scenario plays out, inflation is likely to worsen throughout the foundering U.S. economy. And many experts predict that the pace of food price inflation is likely to quicken in 2009, in line with the ethanol mandate’s climbing food-to-fuel targets. Congress has only one recourse: re-open the debate on the ethanol mandate. "...

"Yesterday EWG released Biofuels and Bad Weather: America’s Food-to-Fuel Gamble. Several media outlets have reported on the release including: LA Times: Midwest Flood May Cover Nation In Higher Food Prices "Our ethanol policy requires perfect weather, and not surprisingly, we aren't getting it," said Michelle Perez, senior agriculture analyst with the Environmental Working Group in Washington. Reuters: Bad Spring Shows US Ethanol Plan Dangerous In a report, the Environmental Working Group said demand for corn was rising more rapidly than crop output. The result, it said, is higher prices for food and fuel. Seattle PI: Record Flooding and Other Severe Weather Will Likely Send Food and Fuel Prices Even Higher This Summer. When the Bush administration and Congress triggered the ethanol boom in 2005 with the Renewable Fuels Standard mandate and then raised the mandate five-fold in 2007, they ignored the impact this policy could have on food prices, relying entirely on good weather to make this roll-of-the dice decision a success. The full news release for Biofuels and Bad Weather: America’s Food-Fuel Gamble is after the jump. "..."Last year, thanks to the RFS mandate, twenty percent of the U.S. corn supply was diverted into our fuel tanks. This figure is expected to rise to 30 percent for 2008. Ethanol and other food-crop based biofuels (like sugar cane, soybeans, canola oil, and palm oil) are a major new demand for cropland worldwide that would otherwise be growing food. Estimates for how much of the global rise in food prices is due to worldwide biofuels demand ranges from 10 to 30 percent. "...

..."A 5-year analysis during the peak biomass burning months of August and September is presented over South America (0°–20°S and 45°W–65°W). Our results indicate that over 5 years, the TOA diurnally averaged SWARF (DSWARF) from the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) scanner ranges between −5.2 Wm−2 and −9.4 Wm−2 with a mean value of −7.6 Wm−2 and an estimated uncertainty of ±1.4 Wm−2. The corresponding Multi Angle Spectroradiometer (MISR) aerosol optical thickness (AOT at 0.558 μm) ranged from 0.15 to 0.36 with a mean value of 0.24. The estimated mean TOA aerosol radiative forcing efficiency (E τ ) is −44.2 Wm−2 τ −1 and is in good agreement with previous studies."..."Contribution to total AOT from small, medium and large particles is 66%, 16% and 18% respectively. This is the first multiyear assessment of SWARF for biomass burning aerosol particles using satellite observations alone and should serve as a useful constraint for numerical modeling simulations that estimate SWARF. "

"PESWiki is guided by the New Energy Congress, a network of 40+ energy professionals who are dedicated to clean energy technology advancement. Both the NEC and Pure Energy Systems (PES) Network (http://pureenergysystems.com) were founded by Sterling D. Allan, CEO. Many others knowledgeable in the industry also help make this site what it is -- a movement for identifying and promoting the best clean energy technologies. "...

"Past atmospheric methane concentrations show strong fluctuations in parallel to rapid glacial climate changes in the Northern Hemisphere1, 2 superimposed on a glacial–interglacial doubling of methane concentrations3, 4, 5. The processes driving the observed fluctuations remain uncertain but can be constrained using methane isotopic information from ice cores6, 7. Here we present an ice core record of carbon isotopic ratios in methane over the entire last glacial–interglacial transition. Our data show that the carbon in atmospheric methane was isotopically much heavier in cold climate periods. With the help of a box model constrained by the present data and previously published results6, 8, we are able to estimate the magnitude of past individual methane emission sources and the atmospheric lifetime of methane. We find that methane emissions due to biomass burning were about 45 Tg methane per year, and that these remained roughly constant throughout the glacial termination. The atmospheric lifetime of methane is reduced during cold climate periods. We also show that boreal wetlands are an important source of methane during warm events, but their methane emissions are essentially shut down during cold climate conditions."