Posted on 03/17/2008 7:29:01 AM PDT by K-oneTexas
Energy Independence: Brazil's Best Kept Secret By Herman Cain
Last week I had the opportunity to experience some of the customs of the Brazilian people, and to learn first-hand some of the similarities and differences between Brazil and the United States. The customs and similarities were not surprising, and often quite enjoyable, but one big difference really took me by surprise – namely, Brazil's energy independence.
Brazil's reputation for the production of quality beef, coffee and sugar is well deserved, especially when experienced at a traditional Brazilian barbeque. It is a meat lover's dream. And experiencing one of their traditional adult beverage concoctions, called "caipirinha", is like drinking lemonade, but you don't feel the bus that hit you until the next day. It has a kick and a stomping all in one specially blended combination.
Brazil is a country of about 180 million people compared to the United States' 300 million. Brazil has a much smaller economy, more inflation, a far lower median income, a higher unemployment rate and a modest military – because they do not bear the responsibility of being a world economic and military superpower.
Most of my visit was in Sao Paulo, one of the largest cities in South America, which struggles with the same issues as most large cities, including economic development, traffic congestion, crime, poverty and political stress.
But! Brazil is energy independent!
This demonstrates what can happen if the leadership of the nation exercises the political and national will to become energy independent, instead of paying energy independence lip service for 30 years as our Congress has done in the United States.
Brazil's energy independence did not happen overnight.
Robert Zubrin clearly explains this transition in his book Energy Victory, and I had the opportunity to confirm his account anecdotally with many Brazilians during my stay.
In essence, Brazil developed a competent energy policy in the 1970s while we as a nation were ringing our hands over the Arab oil embargo. Since that time, Brazil has gradually adapted the use of flex-fuel technology to all cars in Brazil. This means that all cars in Brazil can use either gasoline (which is 25 percent ethanol from sugar cane) or 100 percent ethanol.
When a Brazilian stops to fill up at a local station, the car does not care what is put in the tank. The engine determines what it is burning and burns it accordingly. This technology is not foreign to U.S. automakers, since they produce a large portion of the Brazilian car market.
Additionally, Brazil encouraged and facilitated the acquisition and processing of all of its natural oil resources that did not depend on foreign oil. They did not have a "don't upset the caribou" restriction like we have in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge, nor did they have prohibitive restrictions for drilling, as we have in our own U.S. continental borders.
While Brazil was achieving energy independence from 1972 to 2006, the United States' dependency on foreign oil went from 30 percent to 60 percent. Brazil's use of foreign oil went down to zero.
The United States has never lacked the skill to solve its problems. It has been the lack of will, which translates to a deficiency of leadership. And since we are in a 2008 presidential race, we see this deficiency even more, and hear less and less of a truly competent comprehensive energy strategy.
It was great to experience some of Brazil's customs, great food and wonderful hospitality, but it is way past time for Congress to do what they should have done 30 years ago.
Brazil's best kept secret is one of our country's greatest shortcomings.
The lack of response to our energy dependency is criminal for Dems and Republicans alike. Simply disgraceful.
“Brazil’s best kept secret is one of our country’s greatest shortcomings.”
Our greatest shortcoming is this urge for diversity — everyone doing his own thing without regard of the overall welfare of the nation. Diversity is disunion. For a country, the size of ours, this is national suicide.
We need to DRILL OUR OWN OIL IN ALASKA and other places!!! GOD GAVE US THIS TO USE....USE IT!
The Democrat Congress is DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY!
Excellent point. The article is a good read. There is no single answer to energy independence. Ethanol production is okay, as far as it goes. BUT..The US needs to drill in the areas accessible to us. Damn the roadblockers in the way. My Congressional votes will go to candidates who will clear the path to ANWR and offshore drilling, along with other sane and reasonable choices, like remaining in Iraq until the job is done, preserving free markets, etc.
The US energy policy has been, forever, “cheap oil.” We are seeing a collision between policy and reality.
You really need to go back and read Adam Smith, the book was called "Wealth of Nations".
Then read up a little on the "successes" of centrally controlled economies.
Further, corn itself is not the most efficient producer of ethanol. Switchgrass and better alternatives are available. Corn is used only because it is politcally popular with Iowa holding the first presidential caucuses in the nation (and brilliantly selecting the two least qualified people in both parties in 2008).
Corn is used because it is still the cheapest. The Ethanol subsidies/tax credits are paid regardless of the source of ethanol, including imported.
THE ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY OF ETHANOL PRODUCTION FROM SUGAR IN THE UNITED STATES
http://www.usda.gov/oce/EthanolSugarFeasibilityReport3.pdf
USDA July 2006, see page iv
U.S. Corn wet milling = 1.03
U.S. Corn dry milling = 1.05
U.S. Sugar cane = 2.40
U.S. Sugar beets = 2.35
U.S. Molasses = 1.27
U.S. Raw sugar = 3.48
U.S. Refined sugar = 3.97
Brazil Sugar Cane = 0.81
E.U. Sugar Beets = 2.89
All in dollars per gallon
Their new deepwater 8 BILLION BBL strike is just an example of their sensible energy policy. I did not see envirowackos in Sao Paolo and Rio demonstrating against ‘Big Oil’, in this case Petrobas. We on the other hand, KNOW where we have HUGE oil deposits. but fail to drill them. We have HUGE coal deposits, but we can’t burn it. Instead we put our food into our gas tanks and pay off the Ethanol whores. We wonder why we are inthis predicament?
I’m signing up! Going to get in on this on the ground floor by starting a sugar cane farm on some land I own in West Virginia.
Anyone care to join me?
Energy is the economy, that is. it is the source of material prosperity. This is fundamental thermodynamics. I'll look it up later but some Hungarian physicist summarized this years ago. Given enough energy, human ingenuity can cover for other resources.
Because our Congress and political "leaders" are largely scientifically ignorant and self serving lawyers the United States has reached the position it is in. The argument that world petroleum is "fungible" whatever that means is totally bogus. If you own a farm on which you are totally independent, not isolated mind you, but independent enough that you can tell the rest of the world to go to hell, your stock will go out of sight.
The United States, defined by its national geoconstitutional boundary, is basically in a pretty good position of population-to-natural resource ratio, exceeded only by Canada and Australia. Like you say there are many energy sources available for the Mix. It is the politicians in the arrogant ignorant Washington-NY axis, manipulated by the Council on Foreign Relations, (and I believe a world wide conspiracy) who have sold the United States, as an independent, principled, conservative hegemony, down the river.
These are not good people. See the tagline below - their only identity, that is, the proof of their own value, is manipulating other human beings; the virtual definition of a politician, and the Money-is-God boys.
We can cite names, but there would be many. We can be sure the Clintons, and many, many Democrats, for it is their virtual identity, are the disease, but includes many Republicans too.
I'm sixty years old. The United States has changed drastically. It is now one of the saddest societies on the planet. The manipulative Media and the Ugly politicians show it.
Who knows what will happen? Be conservative.
Sugarcane cultivation requires a tropical or subtropical climate. Are you going to wait for global warming to catch up with your plantings?
The Democrat Party, along with a few RINOS have ruined the country. Hopefully, rottenness finally comes to a head like a boil and will sooner or later either explode or have to be lanced.
ENERGY INDEPENDENCE needs to be our battle cry.
DRILL IN ALASKA also needs to be our battle cry.
Then “health care” will take care of itself. Hillary is playing on peoples’ fears with her constant drumbeat on “health care”. PREVENTION gets barely a nod, meantime the American people get more and more obese and sick every day. . . OR could it be that Hillary and Bill (and the DNC) NEED those same Middle Eastern sheiks’ millions for their own greed and aren’t about to take two birds in the bush when they already have one bird in their hands?
This business of allowing Middle Eastern sheiks to have us in a strangle hold is insanity!
Why do you think U.S. sugar cane is $2.40 per gallon whereas Brazil'a sugar cane is 81 cents?
Because we are subsidizing and supporting a huge alternative sugar industry, namely beets. The amount of land in the United States suitable for growing cane sugar is small compared to the demand. Cane sugar also produces a higher quality and yield of sugar versus beets. But beets have been a boon to the economies of areas subsidized to grow them and they well not easily go away.
Likewise, your two year old figures on corn convesation costs are much higher now, but these subsidies are not going to go away quietly either.
The rich no-drill greenie weenies in San Fransicko, New Yawk and Seattle have common ground with the sugar beet farmers in North Dakota and corn growers in Iowa on this issue.
The Republicans in congress are almost as much to blame. We had 12 years of Republican control where nothing was sone either. The senate filibusters could have been handled by the proposed ‘nuclear’ option, or by an extensive PR campaign by the party, but the lazy cowards did nothing.
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