The allure of marketing environmentally destructive biofuels under the pretext of ecological responsibility may be a short-lived prospect. Last Tuesday, UC Berkeley's Sustainability Transportation Center proposed the introduction of a green rating system for biofuels that would take into account all environmental aspects, including production, processing, and transportation.

There are two primary reasons for labelling: first, labels would provide consumers with the information they need to make smart, environmentally sound choices about the fuels they use, and second, it would give energy producers the incentive to improve upon their product, spurring green innovation and competition for green markets.

That's the idea, anyway:

"We think it's feasible to design a workable and effective ratings system for green biofuels today with the types of information that many farmers and many biofuel production facilities already collect," said study co-author Alex Farrell, assistant professor of energy and resources and director of the campus's Transportation Sustainability Research Center. "The American biofuels industry can produce much greener biofuels than they do today, and I think they can do so at reasonable prices and at a profit."

Presently, consumers have no way of knowing the source of their fuel, save for asking the distributor directly (and trusting their answer). A green labelling system could reveal, for instance, that corn-grain ethanol produced via coal energy inputs actually produces the same amount of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) as using regular gasoline. It could also allow buyers to avoid some of the most destructive biofuel feedstocks, like Malaysian Palm Oil biodiesel.

The report provided several ideas for green biofuel indices, like a quantitative index that calculates a score based on GHG emissions and feedstock production practices. Labeling could take several forms - think Olympics-style bronze, silver, gold designations, a 1-4 star (*) system, or something akin to USDA Organic labels. These indices, according to the report, should be developed through cooperative effort by environmental regulators, agricultural agencies, and stakeholders - as opposed to regulatory mandates.

"Biofuels link markets in fuel, food and land in quite complicated ways, and there are no rules about how to judge the environmental and global warming impacts of producing and processing these fuels. As these technologies get better and cheaper, there will be competition for use of land, whether for food or wilderness. This is inherently a problem of biofuels. A discussion of biofuel labeling could help the domestic debate about how to develop biofuels."

An intelligent and broadly implemented Green Biofuel labelling system would do a lot for consumers trying to learn how their re-fueling choices really affect environmental quality. It would also highlight and reward producers with the most sustainably produced fuel. This sounds like a win-win situation, and with the demand for biofuels increasing exponentially, gas-pump labeling would be a welcome sight.

UC Berkeley News (Apr 17, 2007): Green Biofuels Index would aid consumers, market.
UC Berkeley's Sustainability Transportation Center
Creating Markets for Green Biofuels (PDF): Measuring and improving environmental performance
More on Ethanol (Apr. 16, 2007): US Drunk on Ethanol Hysteria.

Photo Credit: federalsustainability.org