Brazil has found alternatives to oil that are touting1 as the future of fuel: alcohol and biodiesel. Alcohol, a bio-ethanol fuel made from sugar cane is increasingly powering Brazilian automobiles, and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva speaks of an energy revolution, led by his country. Biodiesel, a renewable fuel, is seen as a way to make Brazil, and indeed the world, less dependent on oil. The manufacture of alcohol and biodiesel provides jobs for the poverty-stricken interior regions of the country and Lula has high hopes that, if the trend catches on across the globe, Brazil may become a large exporter of biofuels. Others say it is unrealistic to expect European countries, for example, to re-engineer their networks of service stations and build the many plants necessary to make biofuels from sugar and maize. Like the hybrid car, biofuels may be an innovation with a global potential that will never be tapped. For the time being, the world will watch as Brazil embraces the renewable energy source and eagerly attempts to prove both its feasibility and benefits.
A silent revolution is taking place at the Ale Jatinho petrol station on Avenida Brasil, on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. “I’ll be honest with you, it doesn’t feel like a revolution”, said the station’s 33-year-old manager. “But nobody’s complained yet.” It is hard to see why they would. Driven by soaring oil prices, petrol already costs 70% more at the pumps than alcohol. And, according to Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Ale Jatinho represents the front line of a new energy revolution led by Brazil in a world where dwindling2 oil reserves and growth in emerging economies such as China are making high petrol prices a permanent feature. Fuels such as biodiesel are renewable and can be made from agricultural products, like palm oil or soya beans, which can then be mixed at up to 30% with petroleum-based products such as diesel.
Internet: <www.yaleglobal.yale.edu> (adapted).
1tout – to advertise, make known or praise something or someone repeatedly, especially as a way of encouraging their sale, popularity or development.
2dwindle – to become smaller in size or amount, or fewer in number.
