Yesterday, Brazil’s president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told Pope Benedict XVI that Brazil will help Africa develop biofuels.
Brazil is  Pope Benedict arrived on Wednesday in Brazil, a world leader in developing ethanol from sugarcane.

Lula told the Pope he wanted to help with reducing African poverty by helping countries there develop biofuels, like ethanol.  Brazil’s ambassador to the Vatican, Vera Machado, said that although the Pope didn’t know much about biofuels, he certainly appreciated any action in support of Africa. Brazil currently has collaboration agreements with African crop scientists in Ghana through Brazil’s Embrapa crop-science institute.

Brazilian officials have said that it is also in the country’s economic interest to help create new ethanol-producing markets in order to expand global trade of the renewable fuel.  Brazil is the world’s only major ethanol exporter.

Texas A&M Agriculture is scheduled to host U.S. Department of Agriculture Under Secretary Gale Buchanan and Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples today for a behind-the-scenes tour of some of the most promising biomass research efforts within The Texas A&M University System.
 

“Corn is a viable way to produce ethanol from starch,” said Dr. Elsa Murano, who serves as Vice Chancellor of Agriculture and Life Sciences for the A&M System and also directs the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, where scientists are digging into a range of biofuels alternatives. “But that’s not the only option for Texas and the southern part of the country.”
 

Texas not only grow corn for biofuels, but it can also capitalize on decades of sorghum research at the Experiment Station, Murano said. The giant sorghum varieties being grown in experimental plots today are drought-tolerant, can be grown across the state, and offer high yields in ethanol.  “Based upon our analyses, we find it’s efficient to take something like our new sorghum varieties or sugar cane that produces large volumes of biomass, rather than producing grain and then converting grain-starch to ethanol,” Murano said.
 

Texas is uniquely posed to take advantage of this developing technology as a leading agricultural state with a large forest industry, a major biomass producer with diverse growing environments, and major universities and agencies with energy expertise, said Bob Avant, program manager for the A&M System’s Texas Agricultural Experiment Station.
 

Avant adds that Texas is an energy-friendly state, producing 26% of the U.S. domestic oil and 29% of natural gas.  The state already has an “extensive energy infrastructure in place,” with 26 existing refineries, 135,000 miles of natural gas pipeline, and a large structure of pipelines for transporting crude oil and liquefied petroleum gas.

Last Thursday, Missouri’s Senate, seeking to boost alternative fuels production and consumption, endorsed a biofuel mandate and new tax breaks for motorists who pump ethanol or biodiesel fuels into their gas tanks.

The bill endorsed last week would apply a 5% biodiesel mandate to diesel fuel sold in Missouri beginning in April, 2009 - unless the price of ethanol exceeds the price of traditional diesel.  Sen. Bill Stouffer is sponsoring the legislation, which received first-round Senate approval.

Also receiving preliminary approval was a bill by Sen. Luann Ridgeway granting a variety of tax breaks, including income tax credits up to $20,000 or 20% of the cost - whichever is less - for gas stations that install tanks and pumps for alternative fuels.  In addition, beginning in 2008, Missouri residents who buy a hybrid vehicle could claim an income tax credit of up to $1,500 or 10% of the purchase price - whichever is less - and in 2008 only, Missouri would waive the sales tax for purchases of E-85-equipped vehicles. 

Already in place in Missouri is a law mandating that most Missouri-sold gasoline contain a 10% ethanol blend beginning next January - as long as its price is cheaper than regular gasoline.

The bill, according to the Associated Press, is generally supported by Missouri’s agriculture community, which is supplying more corn and soybeans to new ethanol and biodiesel production plants proliferating throughout the state.
 

Try not to laugh, but, according to UK publication the Guardian, Cuban and Venezuelan heads of state have recently slandered the biofuels industry, warning that the U.S.-backed rush towards ethanol will worsen global hunger and poverty. 

 
Cuban President Fidel Castro wrote two newspaper articles, voicing alarm at the prospect of countries boosting sugar and corn crops to make ethanol, the Guardian reports.  For the Cuban Communist party’s official newspaper, Granma, Castro wrote that by diverting crops to feed cars (as opposed to feeding people), the price of food would rise, and the world’s poor would go hungry.

 
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez was quoted by the Guardian: “When you fill a vehicle’s tank with ethanol, you are filling it with energy for which land and water enough to feed seven people have been used.”  It remains unclear, the paper reported whether Venezuela would go ahead with sugar mills and ethanol plant investments.  Last month, Dow Jones Newswires reported that Cuba has plans to build eight new ethanol distilleries and export roughly 200 million liters of biofuel by 2011.

President Bush and Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva met at the Camp David presidential retreat this weekend(for the second time in three weeks) to discuss trade and ethanol.

Pres. da Silva hopes to advance a biofuels alliance and help break a deadlock in world trade talks known as the Doha Round, which were launched in 2001 and stalled last year.  Developing countries were upset because rich nations wouldn’t make significant cuts in farm subsidies and demanded greater access to markets in the developing world.  No major breakthrough on those talks was expected at Camp David.

“What the two presidents want to review is where we are and what needs to be done and what President Bush and President Lula can do to move forward,” said Dan Fisk, the National Security Council’s senior director of Western Hemisphere affairs. 
The two leaders’ talks on ethanol was expected follow up a memorandum of understanding to promote international ethanol that the two nations signed when Bush visited Brazil on March 9.  Fisk said the two hoped to announce a handful of Caribbean and Central American nations that will be the beneficiaries of pilot programs for biofuels development.
Last Friday, Silva reiterated Brazil’s position that the alternative fuel will not gain traction worldwide unless the U.S. drops a 53-cent-per-gallon tariff on Brazilian ethanol: “The subsidies provided under America’s corn-based ethanol program have spurred an increase in U.S. cereal prices of about 80%,” Silva wrote in The Washington Post. “This hurts meat and soy processors worldwide and threatens global food security.”
The promotion of ethanol could eventually help wean the U.S. off its need for foreign oil, officials say, lessening the energy dependence on volatile Middle Eastern nations and Venezuela, whose President Hugo Chavez has long been a political thorn in the Bush administration’s side.
Teaming up with Brazil on the promotion of ethanol, however, hasn’t pleased everyone.  U.S. Corn farmers don’t like the idea of the government helping Brazil’s industry, which they see as a competitor.  Lawmakers from corn-growing states have registered their complaints with Bush.

Despite the ongoing drama of the war in Iraq and the firings of U.S. attorneys, the president is focusing in energy, converting switchgrass and wood chips into ethanol.

 
The president is scheduled to visit a U.S. Postal Service plant today, where he was to stand near vehicles that run on alternative fuels and hail them as a way to reduce reliance on oil.  He also touted his energy plan on a Midwestern tour of auto plants last Tuesday.

 
“We want people to know that we’re doing a lot on energy, and we think energy is an issue where there’s an interest in getting it done on the Hill,” said Kevin Sullivan, the White House communications director. “The only way to break through and build some momentum is to do two or three events in a short period of time.”

 
Karlyn Bowman, a public opinion analyst from the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, says it is not surprising that Bush is spending so much time on energy.  Energy, especially the shift to alternative sources of fuel, is a hot topic in America today.

 
Bush wants to reduce U.S. gasoline consumption 20% over 10 years, so he promotes cars that run on batteries or on alternative fuels such cellulosic ethanol, which can be produced from cornstalks, woodchips and switchgrass.

 
After announcing his plan, he first went to a high-tech ethanol lab in Delaware to focus on the science.  Next, he toured Ford and GM plants in the Kansas City area to show people that hybrid vehicles are becoming sleeker and more common.  Last Tuesday, he was showcasing how big delivery companies use alternative fuel technology.

 
But is Bush coming off as oblivious or tone-deaf, especially since Americans (and Congress) are paying attention to other issues?  Sullivan says Bush won’t let that happen.  On the day Bush toured the auto plants last week, for example, he returned to the White House earlier than expected to give a statement on the Gonzales matter and take questions from reporters.

Brazil’s Agricultural Minister Luis Carlos Guedes Pinto said yesterday that if Japan guarantees purchases of Brazilian ethanol, Brazil will guarantee a long-term supply.  Ethanol supply contracts with Japan could be long-term, stretching over about ten years, said Guedes Pinto, who is scheduled to travel to Japan next weekend to participate in the Foodex food fair.

 
Brazil’s state-run oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PBR), or Petrobras, for the past few years has been in talks with Japan, a major oil importer, about long-term ethanol export contracts, but Japanese officials have delayed sealing any deals as they wait for more guarantees that Brazil will be able to furnish ethanol without weather hitches or supply problems.

 
If a contract is closed, Petrobras has estimated that Japan could import between 1.8-6 billion liters of ethanol a year, depending on whether the government mandates a 3% to 10% mix of ethanol in its gasoline.  Last year, Brazil exported a total of 3.4 billion liters, of which less than 7% went to Japan, according to Agricultural Ministry data.

 
Petrobras and the Japanese Mitsui & Co. last week signed a memorandum of understanding to study the construction of an ethanol pipeline network in Brazil. The companies plan to study the technological and economic viability of a pipeline network aimed at exporting ethanol from Brazil to Japan and other markets, Petrobras said in a release.

 
Petrobras, and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation also signed a memorandum of understanding on biofuels on Monday, and the companies plan to evaluate financing possibilities for biofuel projects to be developed jointly by Petrobras and Japanese companies, both inside and outside Brazil.  Projects to be evaluated include the production and sale of ethanol and biodiesel, electric power plants using sugar cane bagasse as raw material.

President George Bush said yesterday that the key to keeping U.S. cattle and hog farmers from feeling the pinch from rising feed-corn prices is a breakthrough in cellulosic ethanol production technology.

Critics of the President’s energy policy say that Bush’s strategu of offsetting 35 billion gallons of gasoline use a year by 2017 with alternative fuels such as ethanol is unrealistic and could make feed-corn prices significantly more expensive.

Nonetheless, President Bush said he was confident in his goal, but it would require continued government funding. Cellulosic ethanol “is coming to fruition, and the role of the government is to stimulate thought and investment.” 

The Bush administration has asked Congress for up to $4 billion in loans guarantees for biofuel projects, which would include plans to build biorefineries and cellulosic ethanol plants, which produce motor fuel from biomass such as wood chips, switchgrass, and corn stover.

The President says his 35 billion gallon goal is supposed to help cut U.S. dependence on foreign crude supplies and address climate change through cleaner-fuel. The Administration is aiming that 20 billion gallons will come from cellulosic ethanol, with only around 15 billion gallons likely to be supplied through corn-based ethanol due to market constraints.

Presently, however, it’s technically unfeasible to produce cellulosic ethanol commercially because of the high cost of enzymes that break down the corn starch into sugar for fermentation, and some energy analysts wonder if a breakthrough is possible within the timeline set by Bush.

“I know it sounds like a pipe dream to some…(but) we’re on the verge of some breakthroughs that will enable a pile of woodchips to become the raw materials for fuels that will be able to run your car” he added.  If cellulosic ethanol doesn’t become commercially viable in time, the Buch administration is hoping to use coal-to-liquid production, another alternative fuel, to help meet the 35 billion gallon goal.

Michael Yost, the head of the U.S. foreign agriculture service, said African and U.S. farmers both stood to profit from the growing demand for grains that can be converted to ethanol or biodiesel, two clean burning substitutes for gasoline and normal diesel fuel.

 
“The advent of renewable energy is global,” he said in an interview. “I think it could be the biggest paradigm shift we have seen in a long, long time in agriculture.”

 
Kenya’s minister for trade, Mukhisa Kituyi, told the U.S.-East Africa Region Agribusiness Trade and Investment Mission conference that African governments recognize that agriculture is their strongest industry and that Africa wanted to move from producing raw materials to processed goods.

 
Kituya also said the economics and politics of global trade in cereals has been turned upside down by the rising price of oil, global warming, and new interest in biofuels produced from grain. “The fact that there is now an insatiable market in converting cereals into biodiesel not only escalates the prices of cereals around the world, but threatens to take food out of vulnerable mouths,” he said. “A new opportunity has been created.” He said if managed properly, African farmers could see a greater market for their goods and less competition from farmers in developing countries.

 
U.S. and European leaders are concerned about global climate change and dependence on Middle East oil, and have set high targets for increasing the use of biofuels. Some experts question whether farmers in those regions can meet the demand, possibly creating a market for African farmers.

 
Yost said in less than a year, the U.S. government has been able to drop all trade-distorting subsidies for grains and oil seeds because of the increased demand for biofuels. “We’ve had discussion today with different African agribusiness’ and they are looking for technology, they are looking for know-how,” he said. “With the rising demand for renewable energy, I see it raising prices and raising interest, raising the investment potential around the world, everywhere.”