In the rush for energy independence, U.S. policy isn’t helping. Don’t get me wrong: I strongly believe that we need to stop using Arab oil for diplomatic reasons as well as environmental ones. But government policies put in place to combat the use of oil are hurting the United States and rest of the world more than they help.

During the past few years, our government has begun subsidizing the conversion of land to grow corn for biofuel. According to a study published in the journal Science, biofuels may actually be worse for the environment than the fossil fuels they are trying to replace.

Forests and grasslands are more effective at absorbing carbon than the biofuel crops that are replacing them. Trees are cut down in the name of saving the environment, but the claim is fraudulent. All the carbon that has been stored in those trees for years is released into the atmosphere when the trees die.

It would take 93 years for ethanol, which does in fact produce fewer greenhouse gases when burned than fossil fuels, to make up for the carbon released in that initial landscape conversion. This figure takes into account only land in the United States that has already been converted for ethanol; soy biodiesel that is grown in the Amazon rainforest will take 320 years to make up its energy debt. Ethanol may start saving the environment 400 years from now, but there must be a more effective way that we can implement now.

Another problem is that biofuels are contributing to the rising cost of crops such as corn and soybeans. It has become evident that people in less fortunate countries are suffering. Just last month, there were protests in countries including Haiti and Egypt over the price of basic foodstuffs.

Worse yet is that biofuels are taking money and attention away from research and development of more effective methods. Why isn’t there more investigation into fuel cell technology, which promises to be a clean, renewable and far less energy-intensive way to fuel our cars and light our homes?

Fuel cells work using hydrogen and produce only water as exhaust. Ideally, the technology would run on a pure hydrogen fuel. But since hydrogen is rarely found in a pure form on Earth, it is also possible to run a fuel cell on other fuels. Even when the technology is run using fossil fuels, the efficiency far outweighs traditional processes.

There are several car companies that have developed prototypes of fuel-cell cars, and Boeing even has a plane that runs on fuel cells in development. The government needs to focus its subsidies on these upcoming technologies.

Yes, they will take some time to implement and will require some infrastructural changes to be made around the country, but the advantages outweigh those of biofuels. Fuel cells, and not biofuels, are a permanent solution that the United States should adopt.