Report: U.S. Biofuel Mandate Driving International Deforestation
A new investigative report, “Burned: Deception, Deforestation, and America’s Biodiesel Policy,” by Mighty Earth and ActionAid USA look at the U.S. biofuel mandate’s role in driving massive international deforestation.
The report finds that the U.S. biofuel mandate, or Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS)– which requires increasing biofuel consumption through 2022– has driven Argentina to increase soy-based biodiesel production for U.S. export. In the United States, through increased crop production for ethanol, the mandate contributes to the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, the algal blooms in Lake Erie and other waterways, and nitrate pollution across the Midwest.
The report is released during a pivotal time for legislation in 2018 and recommends that the United States ends or dramatically lowers mandates and subsidies for food-based biodiesel and other food-based biofuels.
Read the report here:
Burned: Deception, Deforestation, and America’s Biodiesel Policy
Originally Posted on NWF.org