Dedicated Energy Crops and Competition for Agricultural Land

Dedicated energy crops, such as switchgrass in the United States, have received muchattention as potential renewable feedstocks for liquid fuels or bioelectricity; however, markets do not presently exist for large-scale use of this resource. This study examinesthree policy scenarios that could create a market for bioelectricity using dedicatedenergy crops: a subsidy for bioelectricity generation, a national Renewable PortfolioStandard (RPS), and a national cap-and-trade policy to limit carbon dioxide (CO2)emissions. Model results suggest that energy crops as a share of total cropland byregion would be greatest in the Northern Plains, Southeast, and Appalachia. Eventhough the impact of energy crop production on land use across scenarios is similarby design, the impacts on other model outputs are quite different, including the mixof electricity-generating technologies, the price of electricity, CO2 emissions, andthe cost relative to a no-policy reference scenario. For example, the price of electricityincreases with cap-and-trade but declines with a bioelectricity subsidy. In allscenarios, U.S. CO2 emissions decrease relative to the reference scenario. Emissionsreductions are greatest in the cap-and-trade scenario, but significant reductions arealso obtained with an RPS.Keywords: bioenergy, land use, energy crops, scenarios, renewable portfolio standard, climate poli