Bioenergy as a Critical Component of Future Energy

This editor believes the public finally understands that bioenergy should be a critical new component of our world’s future energy supply. While this new enlightenment might have come from bioenergy’s environmentally friendly attributes and its renewable and sustainable nature, the reality is that the primary driver has been both the high cost of energy, led recently by petroleum products, and the unique climatic changes such as local weather events and reports of melting of ancient glaciers.

I believe that much of the public understands the primary cause of these changes is the growing demand for fossil fuels for heating and transportation needs driven by both population increases and dramatic economic development around the globe. This increased demand, as well as global politics, has impacted the costs for these energy products.

At the same time, increased use of fossil fuels has been liberating unprecedented levels of CO₂ and other greenhouse gasses (GHGs) that must be impacting the global climate. As a result, the world is looking for alternative solutions. Renewable energy is one of the leading options as long as it is pursued in a sustainable fashion.

Of course, renewable energy has numerous sources, including wind, solar, geothermal, ocean currents/tides, and bio-based energy. The latter category of renewable energy is centered primarily on use of green plant matter, i.e.