According to the National Institute of Space Research, deforestation in the Amazon has declined sharply just as American biofuels production doubled.
ILUC
Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC) assumes that growing grains for biofuel production displaces other crops, which are then grown in other parts of the world, leading to deforestation. The theory is flawed, speculative and withstands no credible scrutiny
Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC) is an untested and heavily disputed theory that assumes corn used for ethanol will displace other crops, like soybeans, and in turn, cause farmers in other countries to cut down rainforests to grow soybeans and fill the demand. Estimates vary drastically depending on the assumptions of the researchers. Some are based on false or out-of-date assumptions. More dependable recent studies have shown no indirect land use change in other countries due to U.S. ethanol production. They have shown that corn-based ethanol production is far better for the environment than oil.
According to the National Institute of Space Research, deforestation in the Amazon has declined sharply just as American biofuels production doubled. In 2004, 10,588 square miles of the Amazon was deforested and in 2009/10, that number dropped to 2,490.7 square miles. Meanwhile, U.S. ethanol production has gone from approximately 3 billion gallons in 2004 to approximately 13.23 billion gallons in 2010.
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