Fields of Fuel

This policy brief examines the potential impacts of scaling up commercial switchgrass production in the United States, focusing on land-use changes, commodity prices, and environmental consequences.

• Commercial-scale switchgrass production is expected to increase agricultural land acreage by utilizing conservation reserve program (CRP) land, pasture, reduced winter fallow, and the displacement of existing crops. This displacement may lead to higher domestic crop prices and lower exports, potentially causing indirect land use impacts outside the United States.
• While commercial switchgrass production could improve nutrient pollution and reduce erosion on U.S. croplands, these benefits may be offset by increased nitrogen application. This could lead to higher nitrous oxide emissions and a net increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the agricultural sector, potentially outweighing soil carbon sequestration.
• The expansion of switchgrass production may negatively affect environmental quality dimensions not fully analyzed in the study, specifically biodiversity and habitat quality, due to the loss of pasture land and conservation reserve program acreage.
• The document recommends that federal biomass research prioritize long-term environmental impacts and system-wide studies on ecosystem services. It further suggests that GHG performance payments should be based on actual rather than assumed performance, accounting for all production practice changes (such as the interaction between no-till and nitrogen application) to ensure carbon mitigation is accurately quantified.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Fields of Fuel. https://www.wri.org/research/fields-fuel

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Fields of Fuel. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/fields-fuel.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Fields of Fuel |url=https://www.wri.org/research/fields-fuel |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendfields, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Fields of Fuel}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/fields-fuel}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }