El Salvador to be involved in ethanol project

As part of a new biofuel/ethanol initiative sponsored by the US and Brazil, El Salvador will apparently be the location for an early demonstration according to reports:
Ethanol heavyweights Brazil and the U.S. have chosen El Salvador as the site of a biofuels feasibility study, President Tony Saca said Sunday.

Saca said the governments of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and U.S. President George W. Bush sent him word that they had chosen El Salvador for the pilot program during their meeting Saturday at the Camp David presidential retreat. It was not clear what the pilot program would entail.

"This ratifies El Salvador as the best prepared country in the region to develop a platform and be an alternative energy model," Saca said.

Saca expressed hope that ethanol and other biofuels can create opportunities for this Central American country's sugarcane industry and decrease dependence on oil.

Additional coverage of the announcement in La Prensa Grafica is found here.

Comments

El-Visitador said…
The efficient way to ship ethanol to the U.S., is, of course, to refine the thing at origin and ship it directly.

However, the U.S. sticks a $0.54/gal duty, unless you happen to be a Caribbean Basin Initiative (hello Reagan!), of which of course there is only _one_ country in the Pacific: good 'ole ES.

So it works like so, if you are a Brazilian distiller:

(a) If eth in the U.S. is too cheap, you'd rather sell your product in Braz.

(b) If eth in the U.S. is very dear, you'd rather ship the thing directly to the U.S., who cares about 50 measly cents?

(c) If eth in the U.S. falls within a certain range... that happens to be a 50-cent range, then you can make $$ by shipping the thing to ES, dehydrating it, and re-shipping to the U.S. But transhipping is expensive

So you see, plant plans are a very risky proposition, 'cause the price band where plants are usable is very narrow. Your plant could end up sitting idle most of the time.

Unless, of course, you happen to have minimum purchase agreements with Salvadoreans.

So I predict that (1) either the plant will never be built by the Brazilians (with OPIC cheap funding, thanks, US taxpayers!), or (2) it will be built on top of a Salvadorean ethanol mandate signed by the ARENA clowns.

Since ethanol gives you 25% les mileage per gallon, the plucked hens here will be Salvadorean consumers.
11:57 PM
Tim said…
E-V:

Thanks for the analysis.
7:46 AM
Anonymous said…
So far, all of the coverage of this issue has overlooked one very important fact: the Salvadoran sugarcane industry has been cited by Human Rights Watch for endangering child workers. They are often sent barefoot into the just-burnt, still smoldering fields.
8:12 AM
Hodad said…
wow, visitador i am impressed
sugar cane, corn, palm is not the solution
ONLY HEMP IS
see my site
www.fairtradefish.org for links to info on this and a link to my bro's site in Chile safariseeds about other sources NOT needing petro chemicals to cultivate
in ES any effort at ethanol will be disastrous, and of course corrupt with no common sense involvement
10:33 AM
Carlos Trio said…
Hi Tim. I have a blog called "Rage against the injustice", and I wrote an article about ethanol. Maybe you want to check it out: RABIA CONTRA LA INJUSTICIA
11:10 PM
Anonymous said…
all the cooments I have read are just the opinions of negativity by non thinking liberals, in a little country such is El Salvador. The citizens mey just welcome the idea of how many jobs may be created by an oportunity yet provided by American investing corporation, however the liberals would rather see never ending crime executed by non employed uneductaed gangs. Ethanol is a risky business whic would required improvemnts only made by researc and hard work. Americans d o not need to invest in such small land with out a return benfit. The most gain is for the workers whom may be employed by. Yet the ingnoran uncontent oposition of all of you ignorant uncontent third world mentallity.
4:43 PM
Anonymous said…
l the cooments I have read are just the opinions of negativity by non thinking liberals, in a little country such is El Salvador. The citizens may just welcome the idea of how many jobs may be created by an oportunity yet provided by American investing corporation, however the liberals would rather see never ending crime executed by non employed uneductaed gangs. Ethanol is a risky business which would required improvements only made by researc and hard work. Americans do not need to invest in such small land with out a return benfit. The most gain is for the workers whom may be employed by. Yet the ingnorant uncontented oposition of all of you ignorant uncontented third world mentallity.

good luck.
May God Bless America.
4:48 PM
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