Catch up on the latest news and analysis from EWG’s team of experts.
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States Confront Biomass Power Delusions
From Maine to Washington state, from Ohio to Florida, electric utilities have been embracing “biomass power” as a way to reduce dependence on coal and other fossil fuels and to meet ambitious goals...
Clearcut Disaster: Carbon Loophole Threatens U.S. Forests
At least 30 million acres of America's forests could be cut down and used for fuel at US power plants if renewable fuels and biomass provisions of current Congressional climate and energy proposals...
Huge Taxpayer Investment in Ethanol Yields Paltry Payoff
Between 2005 and 2009, U.S. taxpayers spent a whopping $17 billion to subsidize corn-ethanol blends in gasoline. What did they get in return? A reduction in overall oil consumption equal to an...
Huge Taxpayer Investment in Ethanol Yields Paltry Payoff
Between 2005 and 2009, U.S. taxpayers spent a whopping $17 billion to subsidize corn ethanol blends in gasoline. What did they get in return? A reduction in overall oil consumption equal to an...
Faulty Science in Ethanol Tailpipe Study
On several counts, a recent Rochester Institute of Technology study ( March 29) hailed by the corn ethanol lobby falls short of bringing reliable science to the ethanol blend debate. With a glut of...
Want to Pony Up for a Pipeline to Corn Country?
The surest way to ensure that second-generation advanced biofuels remain in their test tubes and never see the spark of an engine is to pass a piece of legislation recently introduced (Feb. 14) by Rep...
New 'Simoleonase' Enzyme A Magic Bullet for Ethanol Industry?
Government researchers have announced a promising technological development that may turn the ethanol industry on its head. In a joint press conference this morning (April 1), top scientists from...
The Truth About Ethanol's Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Not so long ago, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) did a new life-cycle analysis of corn ethanol to see if the much-subsidized biofuel meets the standard Congress set in the 2007 Energy Bill...
Is the Ship Starting to Turn Around On Energy Subsidies?
The third in AgMag's series of looks at the Obama budget is a hopeful one. First we examined attempts by the Administration to limit the taxpayer-funded payments that ensure profits for the wealthiest...
Sound Science and Obama's Biofuels Working Group
By Craig Cox, Environmental Working Group Senior Vice President and manager of EWG's Ames, Iowa, branch. On Wednesday (Feb. 3), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) updated its Renewable Fuel...
More Concerns About Ag and Ethanol Driving Wildlife Away
On Jan. 25, the Le Mars Daily Sentinel reported on growing concerns over Iowa's diminished wild bird population, specifically the ring-necked pheasant: "Last year and this year have been tough," said...
Corn Ethanol Sprawl Evicts Wildlife from the Midwest
“Our research shows that native grassland is being converted into cropland at an alarming rate throughout the Prairie Pothole Region,” said Greg Fogel, study co-author and MS/MPP candidate at the...
We're Clean, We're Green, and We'd Like Our Ethanol Plant Emissions Exempted
The word hypocrisy gets tossed around a lot in Washington, where money and power masquerade as character and values. Rarely does the hypocrisy reach such craven heights, however, as a recent request...
Now a Free Agent, Will Dorgan Sign With Growth Energy?
Could Byron Dorgan, the U.S. senator from North Dakota who just announced that he won't run again, be the next target for Growth Energy's New York Yankees-style spending spree for top DC talent?
Top 10 Environment Stories of the Decade -- That You Might Have Missed
EWG staffers put our heads together to come up with this list of bad news environmental stories of the last decade that people might have missed. But there were plenty of big stories that hardly...
Sound Science Prevails In EPA Ethanol Decision
WASHINGTON December 1 –The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said today that it will wait until mid-2010 to decide whether to grant a waiver request that would allow up to 15 percent ethanol in...
Kernel-nomics: Big Ethanol's Inflated Job Claims
By Craig Cox, Environmental Working Group Midwest vice-president. Growth Energy, a corn ethanol lobby group, is grossly exaggerating the economic benefits that a higher ethanol blend in the nation's...
Good Magazine's Cornography
All corn, all the time. Good Magazine's YouTube channel has had this punchy, short video up since January, illustrating how corn permeates American life. EWG's work tracking the billions of dollars in...
Minnesota Ethanol Plant Fined $425K for Environmental Violations
Corn ethanol is far from an environmentally friendly fuel. While petroleum's pollution contributions are obvious and well reported, ethanol's are less clear. However, from chemical fertilizers and...
If You Follow the Science, It's Senseless to Boost the Corn Ethanol Blend
Last week saw the launch of a new web property by a coalition of environmental and business groups who take a dim view of plans to raise the ethanol content of gasoline to 15%. The site, Follow the...
