Suggested Citation:
O'Hare, Michael, Mark A. Delucchi, Robert Edwards, Uwe Fritsche, Holly Gibbs, Thomas Hertel, Jason Hill, Daniel M. Kammen, David Laborde, Luisa Marelli, Declan Mulligan, Richard J. Plevin, Wallace Tyner (2011) Comment on "Indirect Land Use Change for Biofuels: Testing Predictions and Improving Analytical Methodologies" by Kim and Dale: Statistical Reliability and the Definition of the Indirect Land Use Change (iLUC) Issue. Biomass and Bioenergy 35 (10), 4485 - 4487

"Indirect land use change for biofuels: Testing predictions and improving analytical methodologies" by S. Kim and B. Dale [1], presents a principal inference not supported by its results, that rests on a fundamental conceptual error, and that has no place in the current discussion of biofuels’ climate effects. The paper takes correlation between two variables in a system with many interacting factors to indicate (or contraindicate) causation, and draws a completely incorrect inference from observed sample statistics and their significance levels.

 Keywords: indirect land use change, biofuels, global warming, agricultural markets, corn ethanol