Is there enough land for large-scale biofuel production?
Yes. In 2005, a study jointly supported by the U.S. departments of Energy and Agriculture examined whether land resources in the United States are sufficient to sustain production of over 1 billion dry tons of biomass annually, enough to displace 30% or more of the nation’s current consumption of liquid transportation fuels. By assuming relatively modest changes in agricultural and forestry practices, the report of this study projects that 1.3 billion dry tons of biomass could be available for large-scale bioenergy and biorefinery industries by mid-21st Century while still meeting demand for forestry products, food, and fiber. This supply of biomass would be a sevenfold increase over the 190 million dry tons of biomass per year currently used for bioenergy and bioproducts. Most of this biomass is burned for energy, with only 18 million dry tons used for biofuels (primarily corn-grain ethanol) and 6 million dry tons used for bioproducts. Land area in the United States is about 2 billion
