The Promise of Biomass Clean Power and Fuel—If Handled Right

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) estimates that 677 million tons of sustainable biomass could be available in the U.S. by 2030, enough to produce 54 billion gallons of ethanol or 732 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity. The report advocates for a shift toward non-food biofuels and biopower sources—such as perennial energy crops, agricultural residues, and waste materials—while explicitly excluding whole trees due to concerns over carbon storage loss. It emphasizes that bioenergy must be scaled appropriately to avoid competing with food production and causing indirect land-use changes that could eliminate climate benefits.

• The Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that just under 680 million tons of biomass can be sustainably provided annually in the United States by 2030. This volume is sufficient to generate either more than 54 billion gallons of ethanol or 732 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, the latter representing 19 percent of total U.S. power consumption in 2010.
• Energy crops, including perennial grasses like switchgrass and miscanthus and fast-growing trees like hybrid poplar and willow, represent the largest long-term opportunity for bioenergy expansion, with a potential of 400 million tons per year by 2030. These crops are expected to be grown primarily in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Virginia.
• The report excludes the use of whole trees, including pulpwood and forest thinnings, from its sustainable assessment because the loss of stored carbon in forests can take decades to recover, making it an ineffective method for providing low-carbon electricity.
• Agricultural residues, such as corn stover and wheat straw, could provide up to 155 million tons of biomass. However, the UCS applied stricter sustainability thresholds than the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to ensure residue removal does not cause unacceptable soil erosion or degrade soil organic matter.
• Waste materials, including urban waste (household garbage, vegetative waste, and construction debris) and manure, account for approximately 15 percent of the total biomass estimate. Manure specifically offers a 'win-win' by using anaerobic digesters to capture methane that would otherwise contribute to global warming.
• First-generation biofuels derived from food crops like corn, sugarcane, soybeans, and palm oil have caused adverse environmental impacts, including rising food prices and the expansion of agriculture in the tropics. This can lead to indirect land-use changes where forests are cleared, potentially eliminating the climate benefits of replacing fossil fuels.

APA

Union of Concerned Scientists (2012). The Promise of Biomass Clean Power and Fuel—If Handled Right. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2019-09/Biomass-Resource-Assessment.pdf

Chicago

Union of Concerned Scientists. The Promise of Biomass Clean Power and Fuel—If Handled Right. 2012. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2019-09/Biomass-Resource-Assessment.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Union of Concerned Scientists |title=The Promise of Biomass Clean Power and Fuel—If Handled Right |date=September 2012 |url=https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2019-09/Biomass-Resource-Assessment.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{unionofconcernedscientists2012promise, author = {{Union of Concerned Scientists}}, title = {{The Promise of Biomass Clean Power and Fuel—If Handled Right}}, institution = {Union of Concerned Scientists}, year = {2012}, month = sep, url = {https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2019-09/Biomass-Resource-Assessment.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }