IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v39y2011i7p4308-4312.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Four myths surrounding U.S. biofuels

Author

Listed:
  • Wetzstein, M.
  • Wetzstein, H.

Abstract

The rapid growth of biofuels has elicited claims and predictions concerning the current and future role of these fuels in the U.S. vehicle-fuel portfolio. These assertions are at times based on a false set of assumptions concerning the biofuel's market related to the petroleum and agricultural commodities markets, and the nonmarket consequences of our automobile driving. As an aid in clarifying these market relations, the following four biofuel myths are presented: (1) biofuels will be adopted because we will soon run out of oil, (2) biofuels will solve the major external costs associated with our automobile driving, (3) biofuels cause food price inflation (the food before fuel issue), and (4) biofuels will become a major vehicle fuel.

Suggested Citation

  • Wetzstein, M. & Wetzstein, H., 2011. "Four myths surrounding U.S. biofuels," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 4308-4312, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:39:y:2011:i:7:p:4308-4312
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421511003314
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sumanjeet Singh, 2009. "Global food crisis: magnitude, causes and policy measures," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 36(1/2), pages 23-36, January.
    2. Peter Ferderer, J., 1996. "Oil price volatility and the macroeconomy," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 1-26.
    3. Harri, Ardian & Nalley, Lanier & Hudson, Darren, 2009. "The Relationship between Oil, Exchange Rates, and Commodity Prices," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 41(2), pages 501-510, August.
    4. Ian W. H. Parry & Kenneth A. Small, 2005. "Does Britain or the United States Have the Right Gasoline Tax?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(4), pages 1276-1289, September.
    5. Paul Castillo & Carlos Montoro & Vicente Tuesta, 2005. "Inflation Premium and Oil Price Volatility," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 350, Central Bank of Chile.
    6. Pickering, Andrew, 2008. "The oil reserves production relationship," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 352-370, March.
    7. James L. Smith, 2005. "Inscrutable OPEC? Behavioral Tests of the Cartel Hypothesis," The Energy Journal, , vol. 26(1), pages 51-82, January.
    8. Searchinger, Timothy & Heimlich, Ralph & Houghton, R. A. & Dong, Fengxia & Elobeid, Amani & Fabiosa, Jacinto F. & Tokgoz, Simla & Hayes, Dermot J. & Yu, Hun-Hsiang, 2008. "Use of U.S. Croplands for Biofuels Increases Greenhouse Gases Through Emissions from Land-Use Change," Staff General Research Papers Archive 12881, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    9. James L. Smith, 2009. "World Oil: Market or Mayhem?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(3), pages 145-164, Summer.
    10. Köhler, Jonathan & Whitmarsh, Lorraine & Nykvist, Björn & Schilperoord, Michel & Bergman, Noam & Haxeltine, Alex, 2009. "A transitions model for sustainable mobility," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(12), pages 2985-2995, October.
    11. Harrison, R. Wes, 2009. "The Food versus Fuel Debate: Implications for Consumers," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 41(2), pages 493-500, August.
    12. Ong, Yee Kang & Bhatia, Subhash, 2010. "The current status and perspectives of biofuel production via catalytic cracking of edible and non-edible oils," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 111-119.
    13. Benjamin Senauer, 2008. "Food Market Effects of a Global Resource Shift Toward Bioenergy," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 90(5), pages 1226-1232.
    14. Vedenov, Dmitry & Wetzstein, Michael, 2008. "Toward an optimal U.S. ethanol fuel subsidy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 2073-2090, September.
    15. Sumanjeet Singh, 2009. "Global food crisis: magnitude, causes and policy measures," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 36(1), pages 23-36, January.
    16. Yang, Hong & Zhou, Yuan & Liu, Junguo, 2009. "Land and water requirements of biofuel and implications for food supply and the environment in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 1876-1885, May.
    17. Hayes, Dermot J. & Babcock, Bruce A. & Fabiosa, Jacinto F. & Tokgoz, Simla & Elobeid, Amani E. & Yu, Tun-Hsiang (Edward) & Dong, Fengxia & Hart, Chad E. & Chavez, Eddie C. & Pan, Suwen & Carriquiry, M, 2009. "Biofuels: Potential Production Capacity, Effects on Grain and Livestock Sectors, and Implications for Food Prices and Consumers," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 41(2), April.
    18. González-García, Sara & Luo, Lin & Moreira, Mª Teresa & Feijoo, Gumersindo & Huppes, Gjalt, 2009. "Life cycle assessment of flax shives derived second generation ethanol fueled automobiles in Spain," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(8), pages 1922-1933, October.
    19. Roberto F. Aguilera & Roderick G. Eggert & Gustavo Lagos C.C. & John E. Tilton, 2009. "Depletion and the Future Availability of Petroleum Resources," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1), pages 141-174.
    20. Chen, Sheng-Tung & Kuo, Hsiao-I & Chen, Chi-Chung, 2010. "Modeling the relationship between the oil price and global food prices," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(8), pages 2517-2525, August.
    21. Ian W. H. Parry & Margaret Walls & Winston Harrington, 2007. "Automobile Externalities and Policies," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 45(2), pages 373-399, June.
    22. Zhang, Zibin & Lohr, Luanne & Escalante, Cesar & Wetzstein, Michael, 2010. "Food versus fuel: What do prices tell us?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 445-451, January.
    23. Thomas W. Hertel & Wallace E. Tyner & Dileep K. Birur, 2010. "The Global Impacts of Biofuel Mandates," The Energy Journal, , vol. 31(1), pages 75-100, January.
    24. M.A. Adelman and G.C. Watkins, 2008. "Reserve Prices and Mineral Resource Theory," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Special I), pages 1-16.
    25. repec:bla:manchs:v:69:y:2001:i:5:p:534-52 is not listed on IDEAS
    26. Roberto F. Aguilera & Roderick G. Eggert & Gustavo Lagos C.C. & John E. Tilton, 2009. "Depletion and the Future Availability of Petroleum Resources," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1), pages 141-174.
    27. Zibin Zhang & Luanne Lohr & Cesar L. Escalante & Michael E. Wetzstein, 2008. "Mitigating Volatile U.S. Gasoline Prices and Internalizing External Costs: A Win-Win Fuel Portfolio," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 90(5), pages 1218-1225.
    28. Zibin Zhang & Luanne Lohr & Cesar Escalante & Michael Wetzstein, 2009. "Ethanol, Corn, and Soybean Price Relations in a Volatile Vehicle-Fuels Market," Energies, MDPI, vol. 2(2), pages 1-20, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Fernandez-Perez, Adrian & Frijns, Bart & Tourani-Rad, Alireza, 2016. "Contemporaneous interactions among fuel, biofuel and agricultural commodities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 1-10.
    2. Teterin, Pavel & Brooks, Robert & Enders, Walter, 2016. "Smooth volatility shifts and spillovers in U.S. crude oil and corn futures markets," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(PA), pages 22-36.
    3. James Wilkinson & Atanu Ghoshray, 2013. "A Cointegration Analysis of Oil and Agricultural Prices," Review of Market Integration, India Development Foundation, vol. 5(3), pages 249-270, December.
    4. Gal Hochman & Scott Kaplan & Deepak Rajagopal & David Zilberman, 2012. "Biofuel and Food-Commodity Prices," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 2(3), pages 1-10, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Moschini, GianCarlo & Cui, Jingbo & Lapan, Harvey E., 2012. "Economics of Biofuels: An Overview of Policies, Impacts and Prospects," Bio-based and Applied Economics Journal, Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics (AIEAA), vol. 1(3), pages 1-28, December.
    2. Zhang, Zibin & Wetzstein, Michael E., 2008. "New relationships: ethanol, corn, and gasoline volatility," Risk, Infrastructure and Industry Evolution Conference, June 24-25, 2008, Berkeley, California 48718, Farm Foundation.
    3. Proost, Stef & Van Dender, Kurt, 2012. "Energy and environment challenges in the transport sector," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 77-87.
    4. Serra, Teresa & Zilberman, David, 2013. "Biofuel-related price transmission literature: A review," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 141-151.
    5. Okullo, Samuel J. & Reynès, Frédéric & Hofkes, Marjan W., 2015. "Modeling peak oil and the geological constraints on oil production," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 36-56.
    6. Daniel Huppmann and Franziska Holz, 2012. "Crude Oil Market Power—A Shift in Recent Years?," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4).
    7. Okullo, Samuel J. & Reynès, Frédéric, 2011. "Can reserve additions in mature crude oil provinces attenuate peak oil?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(9), pages 5755-5764.
    8. James L. Smith, 2009. "World Oil: Market or Mayhem?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(3), pages 145-164, Summer.
    9. Filip, Ondrej & Janda, Karel & Kristoufek, Ladislav & Zilberman, David, 2019. "Food versus fuel: An updated and expanded evidence," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 152-166.
    10. Papież, Monika, 2014. "A dynamic analysis of causality between prices of corn, crude oil and ethanol," MPRA Paper 56540, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Karel Janda & Ladislav Kristoufek & David Zilberman, 2012. "Biofuels: policies and impacts," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 58(8), pages 372-386.
    12. Huppmann, Daniel, 2013. "Endogenous shifts in OPEC market power - A Stackelberg oligopoly with fringe," VfS Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order 79758, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    13. Karel Janda & Ladislav Kristoufek & David Zilberman, 2011. "Modeling the Environmental and Socio-Economic Impacts of Biofuels," Working Papers IES 2011/33, Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies, revised Oct 2011.
    14. Natanelov, Valeri & McKenzie, Andrew M. & Van Huylenbroeck, Guido, 2013. "Crude oil–corn–ethanol – nexus: A contextual approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 504-513.
    15. Ladislav Kristoufek & Karel Janda & David Zilberman, 2013. "Regime-dependent topological properties of biofuels networks," The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Springer;EDP Sciences, vol. 86(2), pages 1-12, February.
    16. Aynur Pala, 2013. "Structural Breaks, Cointegration, and Causality by VECM Analysis of Crude Oil and Food Price," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 3(3), pages 238-246.
    17. Nemati, Mehdi, 2017. "Relationship among Energy, Bioenergy and Agricultural Commodity Prices: Re-Considering Structural Changes," International Journal of Food and Agricultural Economics (IJFAEC), Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University, Department of Economics and Finance, vol. 5(3), July.
    18. Mensi, Walid & Hammoudeh, Shawkat & Nguyen, Duc Khuong & Yoon, Seong-Min, 2014. "Dynamic spillovers among major energy and cereal commodity prices," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 225-243.
    19. Pavla BLAHOVA & Karel JANDA & Ladislav KRISTOUFEK, 2014. "The perspectives for genetically modified cellulosic biofuels in the Central European conditions," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 60(6), pages 247-259.
    20. Qiu, Cheng & Colson, Gregory & Wetzstein, Michael, 2014. "An ethanol blend wall shift is prone to increase petroleum gasoline demand," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 160-165.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:39:y:2011:i:7:p:4308-4312. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.