Ethanol and a Changing Agricultural Landscape

<p>The Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007 established specific targets for the production of biofuel in the United States. Until advanced technologies become commercially viable meeting these targets will increase demand for traditional agricultural commodities used to produce ethanol resulting in land-use production and price changes throughout the farm sector. This report summarizes the estimated effects of meeting the EISA targets for 2015 on regional agricultural production and the environment. Meeting EISA targets for ethanol production is estimated to expand U.S. cropped acreage by nearly 5 million acres by 2015 an increase of 1.6 percent over what would otherwise be expected. Much of the growth comes from corn acreage which increases by 3.5 percent over baseline projections. Water quality and soil carbon will also be affected in some cases by greater percentages than suggested by changes in the amount of cropped land. The economic and environmental implications of displacing a portion of cornethanol production with ethanol produced from crop residues are also estimated.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>