A carbon tax on fuel would penalize carbon intensive fuels like gasoline and shift fuel consumption to less carbon intensive alternatives like biofuels. Since biofuel production competes for land with agricultural production, a carbon tax could increase land rents and raise food prices. This...

Corn ethanol produced in the US and sugarcane ethanol produced in Brazil are the world’s leading sources of biofuel. Current US biofuel policies create both incentives and constraints for the import of ethanol from Brazil and together with the competitiveness and greenhouse gas intensity of...

The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and state-level Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) have the potential to interact in complex ways because they will both rely on biomass for cellulosic biofuels and bio-electricity. This interaction could be synergistic or competitive; while the implementation...

The indirect land use change (ILUC) effect of biofuels has called into question the greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation benefit of biofuels compared with that of fossil fuels. This article reviews the various economic modeling approaches being used to assess the ILUC effect and discusses the key...

Biofuel production is being promoted through various policies such as mandates and tax credits. This paper uses a dynamic, spatial, multi-market equilibrium model, Biofuel and Environmental Policy Analysis Model (BEPAM), to estimate the effects of these policies on cropland allocation, food and...

Biofuels have gained increasing attention as an alternative to fossil fuels for several reasons, one of which is their potential to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the transportation sector. Recent studies have questioned the validity of claims about the potential for biofuels to...

Concerns about energy security, reduced dependence on exhaustible fossil fuels and climate change have led to significant policy support for biofuels, particularly for cellulosic biofuels. The Biomass Crop Assistance Program and volumetric tax credits for biofuels seek to supplement the...

This paper uses a dynamic, multi-market, nonlinear mathematical programming model, Biofuel and Environmental Policy Analysis Model (BEPAM) to first examine the economically viable supply of agricultural biomass at various biomass prices and the mix of cellulosic feedstocks that will be produced...

Biofuel production is being promoted through various policies such as mandates and tax credits. This paper uses a dynamic, spatially explicit, multi-market equilibrium model, Biofuel and Environmental Policy Analysis Model (BEPAM), to estimate the effects of these policies on allocation of land...