Does a Renewable Fuel Standard for Biofuels Reduce Climate Costs?
研究考虑石油为非可再生资源，发现生物燃料混合指令虽不改变总石油开采量，但会推迟开采，且若生物燃料排放可忽略，则标准有气候效益；即使排放不可忽略，模拟显示仍可能降低气候成本。
Recent literature on biofuels has questioned whether biofuels policies are likely to reduce the negative effects of climate change. Our analysis explicitly takes into account that oil is a nonrenewable natural resource. A blending mandate has no effect on total cumulative oil extraction. However, extraction of oil is postponed as a consequence of the renewable fuel standard. Thus, if emissions from biofuels are negligible, the standard will have beneficial climate effects. The standard also reduces total fuel (i.e., oil plus biofuels) consumption initially. Hence, even if emissions from biofuels are nonnegligible, a renewable fuel standard may still reduce climate costs. In fact our simulations show that even for biofuels that are almost as emissions intensive as oil, a renewable fuel standard has beneficial climate effects.