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All Documents in Energy Tagged biofuels

Aviation Biofuel Sustainability Survey
Issue Brief

To assess the current state of aviation biofuel sustainability certification, and to support the use of certification in the aviation fuel supply chain, NRDC has generated its inaugural Aviation Biofuel Sustainability Survey.

A Greener Biofuels Tax Credit
The Path to Better Biofuels
Report

Next-generation biofuels have the potential to deliver better environmental performance -- reduced lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and farming practices that result in cleaner water and healthier soils -- with less impact on food and feed prices.

Stop Dirty Fuels
Overview

As cheap, plentiful conventional oil becomes a luxury of the past, we now face a choice: to set a course for a more sustainable energy future of clean, renewable fuels, or to develop ever-dirtier sources of transportation fuel derived from fossil fuels -- at an even greater cost to our health and environment. Looking for fuel in all the wrong places puts wildlands, air, water and climate at risk.

Cultivating Clean Energy
The Promise of Algae Biofuels
Issue Paper

Algae-derived gasoline, diesel and jet fuel sound like the imaginings of science fiction, but a growing number of entrepreneurs, investors, academics, and policy makers are working to develop the technologies needed to provide large quantities of biofuels with potentially minimal environmental impacts. This NRDC report takes the big picture view by creating a framework for understanding the environmental challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for this nascent industry.

Homegrown Energy from Biofuels
Fuel and electricity produced from grass, wood and other biomass have the potential to help repower America if carefully developed
Overview

Fuel and electricity produced from grass, wood and other biomass have the potential to help repower America, but only if carefully developed to minimize global warming pollution and the potential harm to forests, grasslands and wildlife.

Building a sustainable biomass industry in California without sacrificing our unique natural heritage
Sustainable biofuels can be a boon to our economy and our environment
Fact Sheet

Renewable energy, such as biofuels -- specifically, biomass that is sustainably harvested -- can be a boon for our economy and our environment. But biofuels done wrong can actually destroy ecosystems and increase global warming pollution, so it is critically important that all biofuels production includes necessary environmental safeguards. California is in a position to get biofuels right with the state's Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), which would require oil companies to reduce the global warming pollution footprint of the vehicle fuels they sell. A groundbreaking new study commissioned by NRDC shows that California can ramp up biofuels production to meet the goals of the LCFS without sacrificing our most sensitive lands. Get document in pdf.

The Billion Gallon Challenge
How America Can Produce One Billion Gallons of the Best Biofuels By 2014
Fact Sheet

To avoid the worst impacts of global warming, we need to make low-carbon biofuels work. But the best biofuels have yet to make the jump from the lab to the pump. As a first step, policy makers should stop spending tax dollars on the dirty biofuels of yesterday and start paying for performance, while maintaining our existing safeguards and standards. But that’s not enough. We need to jumpstart the best biofuels and make them work for our economy and our environment. We need a Billion Gallon Challenge. Get document in pdf.

Herseth Sandlin Bill (H.R. 1190) Turns Biofuels into Dirty Fuels
Legislative Analysis

Herseth Sandlin Bill (H.R. 1190) Turns Biofuels into Dirty Fuels Current law ensures the Renewable Fuel Standard's five-fold increase in biofuels results in better fuels, not just different dirty fuels. The Herseth Sandlin bill would strike critical safeguards established by the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) and turn an important step forward into a counterproductive leap backward. Get document in pdf.

Renewable Energy for America
Harvesting the Benefits of Clean, Local, Renewable Energy
Guide

This guide for farmers and agricultural communities on the economic benefits of investment in renewable energy includes maps showing both existing renewable energy facilities and potential for development of renewable resources.

Testimony of Nathanael Greene, Director of Renewable Energy Policy, on Biofuels and the Renewable Fuel Standard
Testimony

In this testimony presented before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety, Nathanael makes the case for protecting key environmental safeguards in the RFS and proactively addressing the food vs fuel debate through reforming the biofuels tax credits and import tariffs by making them performance based and technology neutral.

Putting Biofuels on the Right Track
Renewable Fuels Standard Safeguards Protect Wildlife and the Environment
Fact Sheet

RFS safeguards can ensure that biofuels are done right, and don't just become another dirty fuel. Get document in pdf.

Getting Biofuels Right
Eight steps for reaping real environmental benefits from biofuels
Fact Sheet

America's transportation sector is the key link between our ever-growing dependence on oil and global warming pollution. The oil that powers our cars and trucks accounts for two-thirds of our total oil use and generates one-third of the U.S. carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming. Energy efficiency is the cleanest, cheapest, and fastest way to cut oil demand, but it is only a part of the package. NRDC research shows that liquid motor vehicle fuels made from plant matter, such as ethanol, butanol, and biodiesel, can be a large and important tool for ending our dependence on oil and stopping global warming -- but only if we get them right. Get document in pdf.

Reducing Hawaii’s Petroleum Dependence
A new biodiesel policy for Hawaiian Electric could jumpstart sustainable agricultural energy in Hawaii.
Opinion

A new biodiesel policy for Hawaiian Electric could jumpstart sustainable agricultural energy in Hawaii.

Driving It Home: Choosing the Right Path for Fueling North America's Transportation Future
Choosing the Right Path for Fueling North America's Transportation Future
Report

North America faces an energy crossroads. With the world fast approaching the end of cheap, plentiful conventional oil, we must choose between developing ever-dirtier sources of fossil fuels -- at great cost to our health and environment -- or setting a course for a more sustainable energy future of clean, renewable fuels.

Biofuels: The Growing Solution to Energy Dependence and Global Warming
The Growing Solution to Energy Dependence and Global Warming
Index

In the fight to stop global warming and break our addiction to oil America needs to employ all our ingenuity. We need more efficient vehicles and we need a clean and renewable alternative to oil. Biofuels produced and used responsibly can be a component of a strategy to beat back global warming. This index collects NRDC studies, analyses and other policy materials that answer some of the most pressing questions about these fuels.

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