With government support, sugar companies and auto makers’ local units delivered cost-saving breakthroughs. "Flexible fuel" cars running ethanol, gasoline or a mixture of both, have become a hit. Car buyers no longer have to worry about fluctuating prices for either fuel because flex-fuel cars allow them to hedge their bets at the pump. Seven out of every 10 new cars sold in Brazil are flex-fuel.
 

Brazil is also fortunate that sugar is the cheapest way to make ethanol and Brazil has the right conditions for growing the crop — plenty of land, rain and cheap labor.
 

Despite these unique circumstances, Brazil’s efforts are being closely followed by countries with big fuel bills. India and China have sent a parade of top officials to see Brazil’s program. India, the world’s second-biggest sugar producer behind Brazil, mandated in 2003 that nine of its states add a 5% ethanol mixture to gas. The Brazilian unit of Germany’s Volkswagen AG, the first car maker to introduce a flex-fuel model in Brazil, has received 38 delegations from more than a dozen countries in the past year alone, VW officials say.
 

Brazil says its ethanol exports will likely double to $1.3 billion in 2010 from $600 million in 2005, largely to Japan and Sweden. These countries hope using ethanol — which releases less carbon dioxide than fossil fuels — will help them meet their obligations under the Kyoto Protocol to cut emissions.

The U.S., which currently imports 60% of its oil, is watching Brazil’s progress, too. Three members of the Senate Energy Committee recently visited, and Sen. Hillary Clinton has cited Brazil as a role model in cutting dependence on imported oil. When President Bush made a recent stop-over in Brasilia, Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva hosted a barbecue and described to Mr. Bush how the country has reduced its oil import bill, according to Brazilian officials at the meeting.
 

The most recent U.S. energy bill, signed into law in August, calls for more than doubling ethanol use by 2012. But U.S. ethanol, which is made from corn, costs at least 30% more than Brazil’s product, in part because the starch in corn must be first turned into sugar before being distilled into alcohol. It may take the U.S. a few more decades to bring the cost of ethanol down to 80 cents a gallon — equivalent to Brazil’s most efficient producers — according to the U.S. Department of Energy. U.S. trade barriers make Brazilian ethanol and its sugar expensive to buy.

And therein lies most of the problem. It is apparent that using corn to manufacture ethanol, which right now a “zero-sum” fuel source and is a setup for failure. It takes just as much energy to produce “corn-based” ethanol as it generates.

So why aren’t we using sugar to produce ethanol? Probably because it works! There is something sinister about the fact that a lot of these alternative fuel sources, like hydrogen, ethanol, solar and wind, that have been around for many years are not being exploited.

If you’ve never seen the film, “Who Killed the Electric Car?” you should as it is extremely enlightening and certainly relevant to this article.

We at The Lang Report will be following up up Brazil’s success as well as other doable solutions that big business and the Special Interest groups they finance have been thwarting. STAY TUNED!