Editorial - Honesty About Ethanol - NYTimes.com

But then came a spate of new studies arguing that earlier calculations had failed to account for the emissions caused when land is cleared and tilled, releasing large quantities of stored carbon. In particular, the studies said, the earlier scenarios had overlooked the indirect or ripple effects of ethanol production — the carbon released when the diversion of land from food to fuel in the Corn Belt causes farmers elsewhere in the world to clear untouched land to make up for the loss.

The studies also said that some biofuels — waste material, forest residues, certain grasses — can be produced without harmful changes in land use and with benefit to the atmosphere. But the indirect effects of converting food crops to fuel production were found to cause net increases in emissions in almost every case. [Via The Chilling Effect]

Environmental Capital - WSJ.com : Burned: EPA Rules Against Coal Plant; Now What?

That appears to leave natural gas as the winner after the EPA decision. It’s abundant, and burns cleaner than coal, though it is still a fossil fuel, and would presumably be subject to the same EPA regulations as coal plants.

So how will the next administration square its aggressive environmental promises with the need to bolster America’s power sector?