Corn is dumped by the truckload at Archer Daniels Midland corn processing facility in Decatur, Illinois on July 2, 2009. ADM receives roughly 600 truckloads of corn a their main facility every day. (UPI Photo/Mark Cowan/HO) | License Photo

A grain elevator driver empties his truckload of corn at the Archer Daniels Midland corn processing facility in Decatur, Illinois on July 2, 2009. (UPI Photo/Mark Cowan/HO) | License Photo

A grain hauler prepares to dump his load of corn at Archer Daniels Midland corn processing facility in Decatur, Illinois on July 2, 2009. ADM receives roughly 600 truckloads of corn a their main facility every day. (UPI Photo/Mark Cowan/HO) | License Photo

Rail cars are filled with ethanol alcohol outside of the Archer Daniels Midland Co. corn processing plant in Decatur, Illinois on July 2, 2009. ADM's plant is the largest corn and soybean processing facility in the world. (UPI Photo/Mark Cowan/HO) | License Photo

President of Ricardo, Inc. Kent Niederhofer unveils Ricardo's Ethanol Boosted Direct Injection engine at the Washington Auto Show in Washington on January 26, 2010. UPI/Madeline Marshall | License Photo

Corn is dumped by the truckload at Archer Daniels Midland corn processing plant in Decatur, Illinois on July 2, 2009. ADM's plant is the largest corn and soybean processing facility in the world. (UPI Photo/Mark Cowan/HO) | License Photo

WASHINGTON, May 2 (UPI) -- The National Wildlife Federation announced it was suing the EPA for failing to protect grasslands from farmers wanting to plant biofuel stocks.

The NWF said it blamed the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to enforce laws that would protect sensitive ecosystems, adding some farmers are being encouraged to replace grasslands with corn to be used in the production of biofuels.


"We think that trying to take the last 5 percent of our native grasslands, which are the most endangered ecosystem in the United States, it's like burning the Mona Lisa for firewood," said Julie Sibbing, director of agriculture at the NWF, in a statement.

The International Energy Agency said in a road map for a clean energy future that biofuels could grow from 2 percent of the total transport fuel mix currently to 27 percent by 2050.

The agency warned, however, that for this to happen, fossil fuels used to convert organic matter to fuel must decline. Also, developers must produce biofuels in such a way that food supplies aren't negatively affected and forests aren't converted to grow fuel stocks.