Biofuels are dirtier than you think.

• Position: INFOGRAPHIC - Brief article

Advocates for "biofuels" rely on the claim that these energy sources are carbon neutral--in other words, they say the living plants, or "biomass," from which the biofuels are derived can suck up as much carbon as the fuels themselves emit during use. Here's how that's supposed to work:

These assumptions led to the passage of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) requiring the U.S. to increase its usage of biofuels to 36 billion gallons by 2022.

37%

When researchers compared the amount of C[O.sub.2] actually absorbed by the biomass to the amount of C[O.sub.2] emitted from the biofuels, they found the offset was only 37%--not the 100% that advocates claim.

CONSIDER TWO HYPOTHETICAL CARS-ONE RUN ENTIRELY ON CORN ETHANOL...