The Chesapeake Bay Commission is holding a Chesapeake Cellulosic Biofuels Summit in Harrisburg on September 4 as a follow-up to its Biofuels and the Bay report issued last year.

The report concluded biofuels could lead to shifts in crop patterns and acreages that create an uncertain future for farmers and foresters and seriously worsen the overload of nutrients to rivers.

These activities in the Chesapeake Bay could bring about “the most profound changes to the region’s agricultural markets in the past hundred years.”

The report also concluded, “Handled correctly, biofuels have the potential to provide significant and permanent new income sources for farmers and foresters, while serving as a means to substantially reduce greenhouse gases and better manage agricultural nutrient loadings within the watershed.”

The Commission report makes a series of recommendations to mitigate the impacts of corn-based ethanol in the watershed, including: planting more riparian stream buffers, changing fertilization practices, promoting no-till farming, incorporating more organic wastes into the soil and establishing grassed waterways.

At this invitation-only Summit, a new set of recommendations will be released that are intended to guide future policy development throughout the watershed. They are the product of an intensive eight-month research and policy development process lead by a select Biofuels Advisory Panel (see Summit brochure)

The Summit will convene leaders from throughout the watershed to consider the recommendations, interact with experts and begin the stat-by-state work necessary to translate the recommendations into policy action.

There are discussions now underway to webcast some of the Summit sessions.

For more information, download the Chesapeake Cellulosic Biofuels Summit brochure.

8/15/2008