Bousso, R., & Sanicola, L. (2020, October 19). Facing wave of closures, oil refiners turn to biofuels. Reuters. Retrieved November 18, 2020, from https://www.reuters.com/article/europe-refining/facing-wave-of-closures-oil-refiners-turn-to-biofuels-idUSKBN2742CX
A large amount of oil refineries in the U.S. are making the switch to biofuels. This is occurring as a result in the large decline for gasoline because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and a lack of need for transportation. Oil companies are recognizing that the future for traditional oil is grim and that they must make a change. Another subject outlined in the article is that across the U.S. fuel standards are going to be strengthened over the next few years which will exponentially increase the demand for biofuels. This is good information for newly transitioned refineries.
Personally, I still don’t have a concrete opinion on biofuels because it is hard to know how effective they will be in curbing carbon emissions until we can truly see what they are being produced from. I think that if biofuel plants are able to find ways to create non-wasteful biofuels without using crops like corn (which have huge external costs) they will have potential. It is good that oil refineries are switching over to biofuels; however, once again we don’t know whether this will have any benefit yet because so many things are not set in stone. Many factors are at play with biofuels: like greenwashing, corn usage, and a lack of true care for going green. To see how this all is going to play out we will need concrete studies and firm policies to ensure biofuels are actually safe for the environment.
I agree that studies are needed to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of biofuels. That being said, the fact that biofuels are renewable and can help reduce our global dependency on fossil fuels is definitely a step in the right direction. How likely do you think it is that we’ll be able to rely more on biofuel than fossil fuels in the future? How long do you think that will take, or is it even possible at this point?
Thank you for the response. It is likely that we will continue moving towards biofuel, and one hundred percent possible. I would estimate most of this shift will occur over the next ten years, especially under Biden who supports the usage of biofuels.
I think that it’s very important that we are trying to move away from fossil fuel emissions as they are a major contributor to global warming and the fact that some oil companies are recognizing this is very good. What would be involved for the oil refineries in the switch to using biofuels in terms of building new machines or having new costs?
Thanks for the response. In all honesty I couldn’t tell you the specifics about machinery changing because I am not familiar with the oil refining process vs. biofuel production process. However, I will assume that the costs of everything would be different. Biofuel only recently became heavily profitable under new monetary incentives for greener energy.