As production and usage of bioenergy grows, so does debate about them within the public, media, and scientific community. As a means to understanding the overall potential benefits and drawbacks of the use of biofuels here is a basic summary of the debate. For additional exploration of the issues surrounding biofuels usage read this article.

Pros

Bioenergy produces environmental, social, and political benefits:

  • They are renewable and produced domestically, reducing our dependence on foreign sources of oil.
  • Ethanol and biodiesel emit less particulate pollution than gasoline and diesel fuels.
  • Biofuels do not contribute to global warming, as they only emit carbon dioxide (CO2) that was already present in the atmosphere.
  • Biofuels do not require structural changes to vehicles or home heating equipment to use. (Flex-fuel vehicles are required for a complete transition from gasoline to ethanol. Most regular diesel engines can utilize biodiesel just as they do regular diesel.)

Cons

  • Biofuels are not yet poised to completely replace our reliance petroleum.
  • It would take a considerable amount of time to see a major shift from gasoline to biofuels, due to the massive number of gas-only cars on the road and the considerable lack of ethanol or biodiesel pumps worldwide.
  • There are concerns that it might be challenging to grow enough crops to meet the demand for biofuels.
  • There are also concerns the production of biofuels requires more energy than they can generate.
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