Brazil can't find world market for its ethanol
Jack Chang
McClatchy Newspapers
last updated: May 02, 2008
ORINDIUVA, Brazil — The ethanol giants of southeastern Brazil have transformed how 185 million residents of this South American nation power their cars and trucks. Now, they say they're ready to start the same ethanol revolution in the rest of the world, if only the world will let them.
That, however, is where Brazil's ethanol leaders are hitting problems. They already churn out what many consider to be the world's cheapest and most efficient mass-produced biofuel and say they can export billions of gallons more.
Yet the rest of the world doesn't seem to want what the Brazilians have. In the United States, a 54 cent-per-gallon tax blocks most Brazilian ethanol from reaching U.S. consumers. Similar tariffs also block access to Europe, China and other major energy markets.
Getting rid of such tariffs, Brazilian producers argue, would give the world what it needs — cheap, clean and environmentally friendly alternative fuel. Ending the trade barriers also would ignite Brazil's ethanol industry and turn the country into a major biofuel exporter, said Jose Goldemberg, one of the founders of Brazil's national ethanol program.
Instead, the United States continues to block Brazilian ethanol while boosting production of ethanol made from corn, which produces much less ethanol per acre than sugar does, cuts into food supplies and does little to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Other countries also have avoided Brazilian ethanol, instead experimenting with wheat, rapeseed and other crops that also produce less biofuel per acre.
(Continued here.)
McClatchy Newspapers
last updated: May 02, 2008
ORINDIUVA, Brazil — The ethanol giants of southeastern Brazil have transformed how 185 million residents of this South American nation power their cars and trucks. Now, they say they're ready to start the same ethanol revolution in the rest of the world, if only the world will let them.
That, however, is where Brazil's ethanol leaders are hitting problems. They already churn out what many consider to be the world's cheapest and most efficient mass-produced biofuel and say they can export billions of gallons more.
Yet the rest of the world doesn't seem to want what the Brazilians have. In the United States, a 54 cent-per-gallon tax blocks most Brazilian ethanol from reaching U.S. consumers. Similar tariffs also block access to Europe, China and other major energy markets.
Getting rid of such tariffs, Brazilian producers argue, would give the world what it needs — cheap, clean and environmentally friendly alternative fuel. Ending the trade barriers also would ignite Brazil's ethanol industry and turn the country into a major biofuel exporter, said Jose Goldemberg, one of the founders of Brazil's national ethanol program.
Instead, the United States continues to block Brazilian ethanol while boosting production of ethanol made from corn, which produces much less ethanol per acre than sugar does, cuts into food supplies and does little to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Other countries also have avoided Brazilian ethanol, instead experimenting with wheat, rapeseed and other crops that also produce less biofuel per acre.
(Continued here.)
Powered by Blogger
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home