Brazil's sugar crop fuels nation's cars (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Guto Harri
BBC North America business correspondent in Sao Miquel dos Campos, Brazil
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More than 80% of new cars now sold in Brazil are equipped to use ethanol as well as gasoline.

Both fuels are available almost everywhere, and since ethanol is about 60% cheaper at the moment, the home grown fuel is more popular than the foreign import.
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Oil would have to fall to $35 (£20) a barrel to compete with ethanol in Brazil.

That's roughly half the price that crude has been sold for over the last six months.
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more at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4715332.stm

[muntrv]

1. A previous thread

mentioned that Willie Nelson's tour bus runs on bio-diesel, fuel made of soybeans. Let's make fossil fuels extinct.

[KamaAina]

2. Hey, maybe we could buy a few "brazillion" gallons!

oh, right, we slap a 50-cent-a-gallon tariff on the stuff. WTO, white courtesy phone...

http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/30/markets/biofuel/

Brazil is the world's largest ethanol producer. They make it from sugar cane, which has the highest starch content of any plant stock. 25 percent of Brazil's transportation fuel is now ethanol. And it's still growing its capacity, because the nation is still forced to import energy. Brazil would be exporting ethanol to the US were it not for a 50 cents per gallon tariff that the power of the US farm lobby makes unlikely to go away anytime soon. China, India, and the EU are all negotiating to import Brazilian ethanol.

Meanwhile most sugar cane land in Hawai'i is out of production, awaiting conversion into ticky-tacky master-planned communities. Another place to grow cane in the U.S.? Louisiana, where the end product could be blended with the output of nearby oil refineries.

[eppur_se_muova]

4. Land in LA should be prety cheap right now, right?

That's sure to be a coincidence.

[rfkrfk]

8. the tariff reverses the 'blenders subsidy'.

ethanol can't be blended into gasoline at a refinery,
the ethanol has to go by barge or rail to a gasoline terminal,
where ethanol is added to the tanker that delives gas to gas stations.

the reason is that ethanol must be kept free of water,
a pipeline can't guarantee that.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. American sugar crop fuels nations epidemic of diabetes. n/t

[smtpgirl]

5. so why can't the US

use their biggest cash crop??

Biodiesel - made up of oils, soybean corn, beef tallow, used restaurant grease, (McD's)

freedom from OPEC NOW

[smtpgirl]

6. oh right, forgot

This administration is about BIG OIL, Petroleum

Forgot, the not forward thinking, just keep the CASH ROLLING

[Dead_Parrot]

7. Award yourself a prize... 10/10! nt