Posted on 02/08/2007 7:35:28 PM PST by Kitten Festival
Energy: Could lowly switch grass mow down the petropower tyranny of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez? A U.S.-Brazil ethanol pact signed this week may supply the fuel to do just that.
Chavez's hostile anti-American dictatorship grows worse as his oil earnings pile up. With the U.S. as his best customer, buying about a quarter, or 1.1 million barrels, of Venezuelan crude oil each day, the bitter coda is that every barrel we buy fuels his anti-U.S. actions.
These range from crazed speeches to colonial acquisitions like Bolivia to rogue-state alliances with Iran and Zimbabwe to menacing moves against neighbors like Dominica, Guyana and Colombia with $4 billion in weapons purchases.
High oil prices, low supply and his own expropriations of foreign oil partners in Venezuela only increase Chavez's oil cash and clout. The U.S. has been largely helpless, because it has few alternatives to buying Venezuelan crude.
But a new deal announced with Brazil to pool ethanol technology and produce greater quantities of ethanol in both countries could help. ...
The ultimate aim of the ethanol deal is to create a commodity market. This could give every country in the region alternatives for energy buying. In turn, it will undercut Chavez's monopoly and abusive influence.
Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, who flew to Brazil to iron out the deal, made no secret of that. "Energy has tended to distort the power of some of the states we find to be negative in the world — Venezuela, Iran," said Burns, quoted in the Washington Post. "And so the more we can diversify our energy sources and depend less on oil, the better off we will be."
...this signals an impressive new U.S. diplomatic offensive
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Burn corn, half the 3rd world will starve.
bad, bad choice.
ping
Together with all other drinkers, I'm a proud Axis of Ethanol member. Ted K. is an honorary chair, BTW.
Boo hoo.
tortilla bump
Brazil has a surplus of sugar cane based ethanol, it makes sense to buy that from brazil rather than produce corn based ethanol here which is far more expensive to produce and does effect food prices.
Ethanol is an ok stopgap measure to place a thumb in the eye of chavez and the mullas but it is not the long term solution
Brazil also has found a new offshore oil reserve.
Make your own. The gubmint requires you add stuff to make it undrinkable.
http://www.ethanolstill.com/
Yes, and thats what we need to do. Sink oil wells and look at shale oil
Sugar Beets..
Lots & lots of sugar beets..
There's lots of oil in ANWR!
Ethanol = Unsustainable, subsidized, food burning, mileage ruining, non-pipelinable, corrosive, caustic, economically backward FRAUD!!!
By the way, this really does hurt chavez as America is one of the only places that can refine their crappy "heavy sulphourous crude" He cant sell to a lot of people. We are his best customer.
It will be intersting to see if Silva does buisness with us.
It would be a crack in chavez's vision for SA
Ethanol is pretty lame as far as energy goes and I agree that food should be used as food rather than an inefficient fuel.
Ethanol has tons of problems, but if it means freedom from energy tryany in the short term, I say play the card
Before you all beat me up, I agree with every point youve made
I'd like the see what would happen to the price of oil if we opened ANWR. Bet it would get real reasonable real quick. ;)
All you said plus tell the enviros to go pound sand and start using the hundreds of years of oil that lie under California and off it's coast.
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