[Episode #253] – Bioenergy Illusions
Various biofuels such as ethanol, biodiesel, sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), and wood for power plants are labeled as renewable and carbon-neutral. But are they really?
If a farmer converts food-producing land to grow corn for ethanol, does that acre actually reduce carbon emissions? When trees are cut down to fire power plants, can we have confidence they'll be replanted quickly enough to deserve the "renewable" label?
Our guest in today's conversation has spent the past six years traveling around the world to research these questions, and he finds that the answer is nearly always 'no.'
Mike Grunwald, a veteran reporter and author who was our guest on this show in Episode #1, nearly ten years ago, has published a new book sharing the results of his extensive research into the many approaches that have been tried to produce bioenergy, reduce agricultural carbon emissions, increase crop yields, and modify consumer diets. Titled We Are Eating the Earth: The Race to Fix Our Food System and Save Our Climate, it includes a comprehensive study of the bioenergy solutions that have been attempted and their unintended consequences.
This is a 'must-listen' episode for policymakers, investors, and anyone interested in bioenergy's true role in climate solutions.
Michael Grunwald is a best-selling author and a widely acclaimed journalist. His latest book is We Are Eating the Earth: The Race to Fix Our Food System and Save Our Climate.
Mike has covered policy and politics as a staff writer for The Washington Post, Time Magazine, and Politico Magazine. He’s won the George Polk Award for national reporting, the Worth Bingham Prize for investigative reporting, the Society of Environment Journalists award for in-depth reporting, and many other honors. He’s written scores of magazine cover stories, about everything from Time’s Man of the Year to the marketing of Barack Obama, and thousands of newspaper stories, including the Post’s lead news story about the September 11 attacks. His work now appears in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Canary Media, and other publications.
Mike’s previous books are The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise (2006) and The New New Deal: The Hidden History of Change in the Obama Era (2012).
On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-grunwald-70858313/
On Twitter: @MikeGrunwald
On Bluesky: @mikegrunwald.bsky.social
On the Web: Mike’s speaker profile at Simon & Schuster
Geek rating: 3