New Report on Biofuels Exposes $400 Billion in Taxpayer Subsidies

Our colleagues at Friends of the Earth and Earth Track recently released a report titled A Boon to Bad Biofuels: Federal Tax Credits and Mandates Underwrite Environmental Damage at Taxpayer Expense which examines the extent to which the biofuels industry is subsidized by federal tax credits and a federal renewable fuels mandate. The report finds that between 2008 and 2022, biofuels will receive more than $400 billion in subsidies.  The report also shows that, rather than promoting the production of less harmful biofuels, many of these subsidies are supporting the most environmentally damaging ones, such as corn ethanol.

Grassroots International has been highlighting the harmful environmental, social and economic impacts of industrial biofuels – or agrofuels – on rural communities in the Global South since this issue was raised by our partners, especially in Brazil.  U.S. subsidies to the industry drive up the demand for fuel crops produced in many parts of the world at the expense of the environment, health and human rights.

For more information on the impacts of the agrofuels industry in Brazil and Latin America, see the following publications on our website:

http://www.grioldwebsite.wpenginepowered.com/sites/default/files/agroenergy.pdf

http://www.grioldwebsite.wpenginepowered.com/sites/default/files/agroenergy.pdf

http://www.grassrootsinternational.org/publications/fact-sheets-reports/myth-biofuels