The idea behind switching energy usage from fossil-based fuel like gas to ethanol is that it is better for the environment. Much of the push to create alternative energy companies has been based on this premise and it has also helped the American farmer get more for crops like corn.

Now it appears that ethanol may not be so "green." According to The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), "a study published in the latest issue of Science finds that corn-based ethanol, a type of biofuel pushed heavily in the U.S., will nearly double the output of greenhouse-gas emissions." A second study appears to support those findings. Part of the CO2 increase created by biofuels is due to changing land from forest to farmland. The process causes large amounts of greenhouse-gas emissions to be sent into the atmosphere.

The news is hardly good for the hundreds of biofuel companies that have been created around the drive for "green" fuel, and it may not be good for farmers who are getting higher yield from the crops they plant to create alternative energy.

But it may be very good news indeed for Big Oil.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.