While some environmentalists and politicians emphasize green-energy options and tout the advantages of biofuels, some researchers have found the technology needs to be improved before it is actually eco-friendly.

Adrian Herrera, an analyst for Arctic Power, an organization working to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration, said it will take time and research funds to advance out of the “oil age” and make biofuels viable resources.

“Biofuels are not efficient enough to work without fuels like oil, which is the most efficient source of energy we have available,” Herrera said. “Currently, using ethanol is creating more pollution than oil.”

More energy goes into biofuel production than can be used from the non-oil option, but the production process should evolve and improve with increased research, he said.

“It takes decades to change society from one source to another,” Herrera said.

Presidential candidates have presented different approaches to making fuel more environmentally friendly, but Herrera said politicians must not try to convince the public that the oil pipe can be turned off completely.

“Politicians use simplistic, media catchphrases because they think truth about the environment and biofuels is un-sexy,” he said.

Democratic candidates Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have proposed 10-year, $150 billion energy investment plans. Herrera predicts biofuel technology requires 10 to 20 years of development before it will be viable. Candidates must look beyond their possible terms in office and create long-term solutions, he said.

Obama calls for doubling funding for solar and wind energy, but Herrera said those kinds of energy are inefficient and produce a greater carbon footprint than oil. Plans to produce more biofuel involve more resource consumption than expected, he added.

“[He] proposes funding for corn and oil to make ethanol, which requires clearing the land and leveling and fertilizer to produce more corn, which the entire process requires the use of natural gases,” Herrera said.

Republican front-runner Sen. John McCain has not outlined any plans for new energy development. On his website, he links the country’s economic future with the “sustainable use of ample and unspoiled natural resources.”

“A clean and healthy environment is well served by a strong economy,” according to the website.

Environmental Protection Agency environmental engineer Bob Judge said all gas in Massachusetts is E-10, a fuel blend of 10 percent ethanol and 90 percent gasoline. Because biofuels require oil for manufacture and transport, it is unrealistic to think the global economy will never need oil in some way, he said.

“I do not see the world getting to a place of complete reliance on biofuels,” Judge said. “No matter how far you go, you need oil to process biofuels. Oil was technically a biofuel at one point because it was biodegraded from other things, like dinosaurs.”

Because of the need for oil, the decision to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge must come under consideration, he said.

Bruce Woods, spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, said estimates of the oil reserves in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge have varied significantly and “no one knows how much” oil lies beneath the refuge.

Any decision to drill in the area would have to go through Congress first because the area is officially closed to petroleum development, he said.