Efrain Rojas

The Transportation Fuel of the Future

I agree that there probably is not enough ethanol capacity in the US to significantly curb oil consumption, however South America has the undeveloped capacity to greatly enhance the worlds supply of ethanol at a cost significantly below current petroleum costs. If they displace their own petroleum consumption with ethanol and don't export a single drop, it would have the net effect of increasing the amount of petroleum available to the rest of the world. Brazil is obviously the ethanol powerhouse and hopefully they can set a precedent the rest of Latin America will follow.

If we relax the import tariffs on foreign ethanol, it would be a world changing event. If we have to import foreign energy resources, I'd rather those imports come from Latin America rather than the middle east or a newly emboldened Russia.