Jody Endres, the Senior Regulatory associate at the University of Illinois’ Energy Biosciences Institute, is the author of a recently published paper on key issues facing policymakers in defining what “renewability” should mean in biomass-based energy policies. “No Free Pass: Putting the “Bio” in Biomass” can be found in the Summer 2011 issue of the American Bar Association’s leading national magazine Natural Resources & Environment.

The article first charts the origins of bioenergy sustainability considerations in U.S. law and policies and their influence on key issues moving forward in evolving standard-setting efforts. Endres contends that in contrast to the traditional exemptions commodity agriculture has enjoyed from regulation, bioenergy policies have opened the door to consideration of environmental and social factors such as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, water pollution and depletion, soil erosion, loss of biodiversity, and food security.  Thus, stakeholders representing environmental and social interests have successfully pushed through formal sustainability certification of the worldwide biomass trade.

The article recommends careful refinement of sustainability definitions in light of the great benefits biomass cropping may have for the environment and society.  She cautions, however, that science and industry must both play a proactive role in fashioning innovative policy solutions to global nature resource pressures, versus resting upon an industrialized status quo that ultimately could backfire in the court of public opinion.  Endres also spotlights the urgent need to reconcile inconsistent GHG accounting methodologies that ultimately will determine whether biomass production is truly “carbon neutral.”  Endres admonishes that to overcome “food versus fuel” claims, modelers and policymakers must similarly examine which lands can and should be considered acceptable for biomass cropping from ecological as well as societal perspectives, including lands currently labeled as “marginal,” “degraded” and “abandoned.” Endres concludes that for early movers, sustainable biomass cropping may present economic opportunities, as well as leadership in what could become a new sustainability paradigm in agricultural landscapes.

Jody Endres is the Senior Regulatory associate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Energy Biosciences Institute and an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences. Contact Endres at jendres2@illinois.edu.

The full article “No Free Pass: Putting the “Bio” in Biomass” is available here. To learn more about the Energy Biosciences Institute and its research to solve the global energy challenge, visit www.energybiosciencesinstitute.org.