Musicians lead the way in America

In the United States biofuels are all the rage. The US National Biodiesel Board ranks Neil Young, Willie Nelson, Melissa Etheridge, Pearl Jam, the Barenaked Ladies, Indigo Girls, Black Crowes and Bonny Raitt among its supporters.

According to the board, Nelson, a country music star, uses a B100 biodiesel blend for his Mercedes 320 CDI. The rock band Pearl Jam has a biodiesel tour bus.

Whether or not supporting biofuel sells records, US politicians appear to think it can win them votes.

In his State of the Union address last week (23 January) US President George W. Bush put particular emphasis on the technology. Announcing an ambition to reduce petrol consumption over the next ten years by 20%, he proposed lifting targets for renewable and alternative fuels. The targets for biofuels would be five times their current level.

By 2017, Bush wants Americans to be using 132 billion litres of biofuel a year. That compares with current production levels of 23bn litres a year.

But even before Bush’s announcement, biofuel production has been growing fast. Writing in European Voice last November, C. Boyden Gray, the US ambassador to the EU, described the switch to biofuels as "the most profound change in American agriculture in 200 years".

The bulk of US-produced biofuel is ethanol made from maize. "In the US they are really stepping up production of maize for bioethanol," said David Proudley, a non-food crop adviser at the UK’s National Farmers’ Union.

The farm lobby in America has been quick to promote bioethanol and in particular has stressed the attraction of growing energy at home rather than importing it from abroad.

Willie Nelson gives his reason for choosing biodiesel as, "we should all be doing our part to reduce our reliance on foreign oil and contribute to our own economy".

Securing energy supply and giving support to US farmers have played bigger in the US as arguments in favour of biofuels than have concerns about climate change. Given how much energy has to be spent to produce bioethanol (the International Energy Agency estimates 80% of what is produced) perhaps that is only right.

Bioethanol is forecast to account for about 10% of transport fuel within a few years.

But Daniel Yergin, chairman of the energy consultancy Cambridge Energy Research Associates, was warning last week that there are constraints to the US corn production for biofuel and that already there are protests about land use and about the switch of corn production from the food industry to energy.

What is not yet clear is whether the ambitions of Bush and corn-growers for biofuels can be realised without provoking a backlash from other farmers and other industries.

Biofuels in the US

• In 2005 the US produced 16.2bn litres of biofuels - 15.1bn litres of bioethanol and 290 million litres of biodiesel

• In 2006 the US government aimed to produce a minimum 15bn litres of biofuels

• By 2012 the government has set a production target of 28.4bn litres

• In 2005, the US used 14% of its corn crop for bioethanol production

• The US currently has 114 ethanol plants and 87 biodiesel plants

Sources: US Department of Energy, Worldvision, International Energy Agency, Deutsche Gesellschaft für technische Zusammenarbeit, National Biodiesel Board, American Coalition for Ethanol

In the United States biofuels are all the rage. The US National Biodiesel Board ranks Neil Young, Willie Nelson, Melissa Etheridge, Pearl Jam, the Barenaked Ladies, Indigo Girls, Black Crowes and Bonny Raitt among its supporters.