AIR, 2009
Land use effects of US corn-based ethanol
This study assesses land use changes and related greenhouse gas (GHG) emission impacts due to expansion of corn-based ethanol production in the United States. The land use change estimates discussed in this paper were developed for a scenario where U.S. corn-based ethanol production expands from approximately 2 billion gallons per year in 2000/2001 to 15 billion gallons per year (bgy) in 2015/16. The overall conclusion of this report is that 15 bgy of corn ethanol production in 2015/16 should not result in new forest or grassland conversion in the U.S. or abroad.