Biofuels good or bad?

Recent studies published in the journal Science suggested that growing crops to process into fuels creates as much greenhouse gas as using fossil fuels.

The New York Times and other publications quickly jumped on this report by saying biofuels were worthless.

However the issue is a lot more nuanced than the headlines imply. Clearing forests to create farmland does have a negative environmental impact, and this is happening in parts of the world such as Brazil.

But in the U.S., existing cropland is being used for ethanol production from corn. This has pros and cons as well.

An article in Plenty magazine goes into more depth about these biofuel concerns. It also profiles one Seattle-based company that's working to bring locally produced biofuel to the Washington area.

Another aspect of biofuel is cellulosic ethanol. This is fuel made from the stalks and stems of plants -- essentially the waste products. MIT's Technology Review writes about several companies starting to process this type of biofuel.

Right now, it's not as cheap to make as traditional biofuel, but the technology holds promise.

No one fuel is likely to replace all of our oil needs immediately. And biofuels aren't yet a perfect solution. What the studies in Science remind us is that it's important to look at the complete picture, from start to finish, when we evaluate the environmental impact.