Biocatalysis

Let’s say you are a vegetarian. Do you think you should pay an extra tax on your veggies because producing them takes away land that could otherwise be used to produce feed for livestock, thereby driving up the cost of raising cattle, and ultimately the cost of beef for all the meat-eaters? No? Well, the so-called logic behind ILUC is analogous to that little story.  Actually, it is even more twisted.

Stripped of fancy political language, indirect land use change (ILUC) penalizes American farmers for deforestation in Brazil.  The reasoning goes like this: producing more corn to produce fuel ethanol displaces other crops, like soybeans.  Then, farmers in other countries, such as Brazil, will cut down rainforests to grow soybeans to fill the gap. Therefore, ILUC proposes to put a levy or tax on biofuels based on a convoluted calculation of how much carbon dioxide will be “indirectly released” due to the supposed deforestation. In essence, ILUC advocates believe that American farmers and biofuel producers should be held accountable for the actions of people on the other side of the globe over whom they have no control.

Confused? You should be, because this is one of the most cockamamie schemes ever cooked up by “political minds”—no, that is an oxymoron—“politicians.”  And leave it to my home state of California to lead the way in implementing cockamamie schemes. The Golden State has decided to incorporate ILUC calculations in its Low Carbon Fuel Standard. Never mind that there is absolutely no scientific basis or consensus for this calculation. I think I need some ethanol …