Americas Features
Ethanol: Washington's biological weapon against Chavez
By Jan-Uwe Ronneburger Mar 9, 2007, 19:03 GMT
Sao Paulo/Buenos Aires - Until now there seemed to be no way to stem the growing influence across Latin America of left-wing populist Hugo Chavez, an outspoken critic of the United States.
But ethanol could hold the key to stopping the Venezuelan president and his efforts towards a leftist subcontinent.
This is at least, according to political analysts, one of the intentions of US President George W Bush, who on Friday moved his country closer to a deal with Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to cooperate in marketing and producing the biofuel ethanol.
The product made from sugar cane in Brazil and from corn in the United States appears almost like a 'biological weapon' against the oil money of populist Chavez.
Bush picked his words carefully in Sao Paulo. In an apparent but not explicit reference to Venezuela, he said it is in the interest of the United States that the countries in the region, and in Central America in particular, 'become energy producers, not remain dependent on others for their energy sources.'
The US president - who has been condemned internationally for his refusal to support the Kyoto accord on reducing carbon emissions - called himself a steward of the environment and said that biofuels are good to combat climate change.
For Brazil, in turn, ethanol production has an enormous economic potential. Billions of dollars of investment are already planned for the coming years, and the country hopes to attract additional US investment. Brazil and the US jointly produce over 70 per cent of the world's ethanol, although the South American country's is made out of sugar cane and the northern giant's out of the less energy-efficient corn.
Brazil currently produces 16 billion litres of ethanol per year, a majority of which is used as fuel for motor vehicles. Even petrol sold in the country includes an obligatory 23 per cent ethanol.
The biofuel, which in tropical climates is relatively cheap to produce, can compete with fossil fuels, and Brazil's decades-old project is starting to bear fruit. The country has been able to considerably reduce its dependence on expensive oil imports. Further, since ethanol production from sugar cane requires substantially less energy than its European or US variants, the emissions of carbon dioxide are being reduced to the benefit of the environment.
However, the success story also has its drawbacks. The amount of land needed to produce ever more sugar cane is huge. Environmental activists warn of the negative consequences that monoculture is likely to have on the fertility of the land, and there is the added danger that increasing areas of rainforest are cut down for sugar cane production.
The use of pesticides, the contamination of ground water and the displacement of small farmers to the benefit of large agro-industrial companies are further negative elements in ethanol's environmental balance.
In Brazil, the fact that foreign capital is increasingly being drawn to the sector is another cause for worry, with the hope for annual yields of up to 20 per cent luring funds.
Countries like Brazil, with around 30 per cent of the population living in poverty, face a latent conflict in the choice between plant cultivation for fuel or food. As the demand for land for biofuels grows, prices for foodstuffs could increase.
Indeed, Mexico - the last nation on Bush's current Latin American tour that will also take him to Uruguay, Colombia and Guatemala - has had a taste of a taste of the downside in recent weeks.
The surging price of the corn tortilla, a staple in the Mexican diet, provoked massive protests and forced the government to provide some protection from the rising prices.
One of the factors mentioned for the increase was the use of corn for the production of biofuels in the United States, the world's largest exporter of corn.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
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Ethanol isn't a geopolitical check on Venezuela's power. Chavez uses revenues from his sales of oil and natural gas to subsidize social spending in poorer countries where he hopes to wield his influence. So long as we keep binging on fossil fuels (something the bush adminstration WON'T do anything about, no matter how much corn ethanol we produce), Chavez will continue to have the funds he needs to buy his influence.
Another important point, we can support ethanol as much as we want, but no trade agreement will provide the direct and tangible benefit that Chavez's cash transfers to countries like Bolivia provide.
If we want to offset Chavez's growing influence in the region, America needs to give up on the 'washington concensus' policies that have overwhelmingly wreaked havoc on Latin American economies and start getting serious about poverty reduction and human rights in the region. Unfortunately, we consistently worked against these very principles in Latin America for most of the history of the United States.
chavez is full of fecal matter. he bad mouths the u.s. but his oil economy would take a big hit if the u.s. quit using his oil (citgo). in fact the kennedy clan of massachusets are his biggest friends in the u.s. (have you seen the commercials on t.v.?). shut the kennedys up, quit buying venezuelan oil and stop outsourcing the u.s.
Corn is the most intensively fertilized crop there is. Plus incredible amounts of pesticides are used. The environmental damage is GI-NORMOUS! Ethanol from corn is only viable because of its federal subsidies. Ethanol is extremely corrosive and requires expensive resistant tanks, pumps, and pipes. Finally, we would need to dedicate 70 PERCENT of our farmland to corn if we want to replace petroleum.
Archer-Daniel and other big corn producers have scammed the public big time. Ethanol is NOT the solution.
I would purchase E86, but unfortunalty gas mileage suffers and we would end up paying more per mile per gallon. So regular unleaded it is.
The 54 cent tax on imported ethanol is completely contradictory of the free trade agreement and is a hypocritical policy to ensure the prosperity of American indusrty and markets. However, as I am a leftist, I dont completely agree with free trade anyway so the tarriff does not bother me, what does is the hypocricy. Also I think it is possible to have a prospering biofuel economy in America, and ALSO import as much as we possibly can (at a regulated price) because arent we reaching a point in our society where we need to switch to alternative fuels as much as possible? If the consumer market is developed enough, we can protect our domestic biofuel economy, and import from other countries as well, further decreasing our reliance on imported petroleum products.
zdub - This is only the beginning. Ethanol will eventually be produced in mass quantity using fast growing plants like grasses and trees. It will get more and more efficient to produce also, requiring less farmland. The corrosive nature of it is a non issue. Do you have a better answer to fuel independance? Also once oil stays above $100 a barrel there will be no need for any sibsidies.
The White House (Cheney/Bush petroleum profiteers et al) are once again trying to divert naive and ignorant Americans into believing that ethanol is a 'good idea' rather than looking at the real problem of the petroleum industry's government supported free for all on our pocket books. The true environmental costs (and the names of the profiting benefactors)of this oil industry scam are there for those who wish to make educated assessments rather than emotionally charged naive and ignorant choices. Since when has the Cheney/Bush republican money grubbing machine been honest about their true motvations??
Why not build electric cars that refuel at night off of an underused power grid? I would gladly commute daily to work in one. Leave the fossil and biofuel vehicles for times when electric commuter solutions won't work.
In my situation that would save 10 gallons of gasoline a week.
Just great!, Now we are dependent on foreign biofuel instead of local biofuel. thats why we put the tariff in the first place. now big oil is back in the money loop.
c'mon marsh. electric cars wouldn't be economically feasible for those who make so much from the fossil fuels (bush and those who hide behind bushes). you didn't have to see 'who killed the electric car' to know the culprits responsible.
OK first of all, I wish some of you people would just admit that Bush can do no right in your eyes. I don't particularly love Bush, but this is a good move. And I don't necessarily see how us having a tariff on their ethanol is counter to this agreement. This is a cooperative production and marketing agreement, not a cooperative trade agreement. Why in the hell would you think the two largest ethanol producers would want to market and sell to each other anyway? Do you think Iraq sells oil to Saudi Arabia? Sheesh!
And for the folks that somehow think ethanol is a bad thing, you need to have your heads examined. It might not completely displace gasoline, but it's a ready and realistic alternative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions TODAY, not 5 or 10 or 20 years from now when people finally get around to putting electric outlets in every parking lot or hydrogen fuel stations all over the country. This is a great first step and Bush is spot on here.
For those who are all over the electric cars, I would also like for you to do some research on the environmental ramifications of millions of worn out and extremely toxic battery cells which will need to be replaced on a fairly regular basis in electric cars (think about how long your laptop battery lasts before it gradually degrades to only giving you 50% of the charge time you used to enjoy). And even better, if you live in a hot area of the country or a cold area of the country, electric cars range is severely diminished by running a heater or an air conditioner. Get stuck in traffic and you might not make it home (at least not without sweating/freezing). And if you think it's not a big problem to not be able to run your a/c, I challenge you to try to walk into a business meeting dressed in a suit after sitting in a 100 degree car at 98% humidity for 20 minutes.
Hugo is a fascist in socialist clothing. He has spent $4 billion already just to upgrade the Venezuelan military to protect Venezuela from 'a U.S. attack' (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003587998_chavez25.html ?syndication=rss). Huh? If the U.S. decided to attack Venezuela, there's no way they could realistically defend themselves even if they plowed 80% of their budget into military spending for the next 10 years. And really, how likely is that? So why is he building up the military then?
And for a socialist, he sure has made quite a few moves to consolidate his personal power, including bullying their Congress to grant him unprecedented new executive powers shortly after his last election, including the ability to decree laws for 18 months (does that even qualify as a democracy still?)(http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20070214/cm_thenation/20070226nav asky).
Plus, look at the allies he's cozying up to outside of the western hemisphere: Iran and North Korea. I don't care who you are, you can't possibly think that Kim Jong Il is a good guy (or even a sane guy for that matter). And supporting Iran in their nuclear ambitions? That's all we need is yet another country with nukes, especially a fairly unstable bunch of fundamentalist religious nutjobs with a history of funding terrorist attacks.
And his populist rhetoric is equally disturbing -- while the U.S. has not exactly been the best friend to all of those countries, we're not exactly the great Satan Chavez is making us out to be either. He is using the latent fear and dislike of U.S. economic imperialism and Cold War misdeeds to whip the region into a furor. To what end? What is he hoping to accomplish exactly? Think carefully about the answers to those questions. To distract people from a lesser evil (say the creeping fascism in their own government) you must distract them with a greater evil, real or imagined (say a large, wealthy, 'imperialistic' superpower neighbor with a talent for forcibly butting its nose into places it isn't wanted). This is the very thing that has disturbed some observers about the War on Terror in our own country.
No, from his choice in allies to his angry rhetoric to his continuing grab for power to his dubious military buildup, Chavez doesn't strike me as a benign Robin Hood figure just trying to help out the region's poor and disenfranchised out of the goodness of his golden heart. He strikes me as a Hitler wanna be who is using populist rhetoric in an attempt to build his own little fascist empire in Latin America. And most disturbing of all is if the amount of rabble rousing he's doing outside his own country is any indication, he apparently isn't satisfied with just ruling Venezuela. I truly hope I'm wrong, but this all feels eerily familiar.
The point is that Chavez needs his evil Bush fantasies to hold on to power in the same way as Hitler needed the Jews, (not that Chavez is a Hitler). With out the fundamental lie that US is the enemy of Venz, Chavez becomes a pointless little chimp in a cheap suit. US and Venz are set to do record trade this year, and last year was the same. Think its just sad that the same old lies and misdirection seem to work on guilible publics through out history.
Full steam ahead with safer alternative energy sources, there's no stopping us now. Continue to invest, research and get it done America. Do not forget to protect and our food supply from shortages as well. Yes, we can have homemade energy and utilize it too.
Moreover, we need not worry about the Chavez’s of the world. ‘The hecks with politics’… become an independent nation in the energy realm. Let's not cower to those who want to hold us hostage to their ideals. Inspire and encourage one another to stand tall and walk the walk of a people that controls their own destiny.
we get...1%(?) of our auto fuel from biofuels. wake up.
I am beginning to understand Carrie Nation's hatred for demon rum. Here are the number from WWW.FUELECONOMY.GOV:
**************** Mid Size Cars***************
Monte Carlo on E85: 16 mpg city -- 23 mpg highway
Toyota Prius (Gasoline Hybrid): 60 mpg City -- 51 Highway
**************** SUV *********************
Chevy Tahoe/Suburban E85 11 mpg City -- 15 mpg highway
Toyota Highlander (Gasoline Hybrid) 31 mpg city -- 27 mpg highway
Things to remember. The transportation system that burns the least fuel pollutes the least and sends the least amount of money to tyrants and savages. Batteries are easily recycled, particularly the more efficient lead-acid batteries which the current crop of hybrid cars are not using. Hybrid vehicles using diesel engines would realize a forty-percent improvement in efficiency and that is such a minor change that it could be the assembly lines could be changed inside of a month for cars like the Prius or Highlander. Plug-in type hybrids would use even less liquid fuel because their range on battery would be doubled, perhaps trebled.
Why switch to a fuel we need more of to get buy instead of working things so that we need less fuel? Do we really want to pay more for groceries? Remember that if the demand for ethanol continues to climb, farmers will plant more corn and cane and less of other crops. When grain prices go up, dairy, meat, egg and even fish prices go up.
Ethanol is a bad deal for us no matter which direction I look at it from and no matter what crop source is proposed.
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RatherNotSayMar 9th, 2007 - 20:02:56
Ethanol made from sugar (in Brazil) is much cheaper that ethanol made from corn (here in US). We currently have about 54 cents per gallon tariff on ethanol imported from Brazil. This is in determent to American consumer (higher corn prices used in everything from animal to human food and obviously, ethanol prices).
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