Study finds while ethanol production went up in 2007, corn exports went up in 2007 as well, while changes in land use were slight.

http://www.transportation.anl.gov/me..._response.html

Summary:

-U.S. corn yield per acre has steadily increased — nearly 800% in the past 100 years. Between 1980 (the beginning of the U.S. corn ethanol program) and 2006, per-acre corn yield in the United States has increased at an annual rate of 1.6%

-Seed companies are developing better corn seeds that resist drought and pests and use nitrogen more efficiently. Corn yield could increase at an annual rate of 2% between now and 2020

-It is False to assume that distillers' grains and solubles (DGS) from corn ethanol plants would displace corn on a pound-for-pound basis. The one-to-one displacement ratio between DGS and corn fails to recognize that the protein content of DGS is much higher than that of corn (28% vs. 9%).

-U.S. corn exports have fluctuated around the 2-billion-bushel-a-year level since 1980. In 2007, when U.S. corn ethanol production increased dramatically, its corn exports increased to 2.45 billion bushels — a 14% increase from the 2006 level. This increase was accompanied by a significant increase in DGS exports by the United States — from 0.6 million metric tons in 1997 to 3 million metric tons in 2007.

-Production of corn-based ethanol in the United States so far results in moderate GHG emissions reductions. There has also been no indication that U.S. corn ethanol production has so far caused indirect land use changes in other countries because U.S. corn exports have been maintained at about 2 billion bushels a year and because U.S. DGS exports have steadily increased in the past ten years.

-Conclusions regarding the GHG emissions effects of biofuels based on speculative, limited land use change modeling may misguide biofuel policy development.