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opinion editorials
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Brazil's Cane Could Sweeten Energy Mix
Energy independence an impossible dream? Not for Brazil, which produces a surplus, thanks to a sweet crop that has made it the global leader in alternative energy.
But prohibitive tariffs are keeping Brazil's home-grown energy at home. The United States, for one, levys a duty of 55 cents a gallon on the fuel derived from Brazilian sugar cane, even while providing subsidies to divert more corn from the food supply to refineries here at home.
Flip back through the checkbook and see what that policy has done to the tab for groceries, or for that matter food prices and supplies around the world, without any apparent effect on the price at the pump. And there are other costs. Corn is a thirsty crop, and in the drier Western states it's drinking out of underground aquifers that replenish slowly if at all. Refining corn into ethanol is a thirsty process, the production of a gallon of ethanol taking as much as four gallons of water. On top of that, it takes energy to cultivate and harvest corn and to haul it to the refinery. Ethanol can't be pumped through the system of pipelines set up for petroleum products, so it takes more energy to haul it to the point of sale. When all is said and done, the ethanol in a vehicle's tank gives back only 1.3 times the energy it took to get it there. Is this the highest and best use of soil, water and crops?
Brazilian cane is a much better source of ethanol, producing more than twice as much per acre as corn and generating eight units of energy for every unit consumed in production. It occupies only 2 percent of Brazil's arable land, so it hasn't crowded out other crops and pushed up food prices.
Though the U.S. tariffs probably are rooted in protectionism for domestic sugar producers, there also are concerns about fueling spread of cane agriculture into the rain forest. It's a reasonable worry, given that slash-and-burn clearing and plowing up untilled land would be counterproductive in terms of dumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Brazilian officials say there is plenty of non-forest land to expand into. Why not trust and verify, taking advantage of Brazilian ethanol as long as cane growers' agricultural practices are deemed appropriate?
It makes a lot more sense than triggering a world food crisis to keep Iowa corn farmers happy.
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