A U.N. panel said today that biofuels' effects on air and water have not been sufficiently explored despite growing global production. The U.N. Environment Programme's report concludes that so-called lifecycle assessments must go beyond calculating greenhouse gas emissions and consider how agricultural production of feedstocks affects the acidification and nutrient loading of waterways. "The available knowledge from life-cycle-assessments ... seems limited, despite the fact that for those issues many biofuels cause higher environmental pressures than fossil fuels," the report says. Go to story #1