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At a press conference today, Florida governor Jeb Bush; Roberto Rodrigues, former Brazilian Minister of Agriculture and Luis Alberto Moreno, President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), announced the creation of the Interamerican Ethanol Commission.
Bush, Rodrigues and Moreno will serve as co-chairs of the commission which has as its mission to promote the usage of ethanol in the gasoline pools of the Americas. Rodrigues who is the president of Fiesp's (São Paulo State Industries Federation) Agribusiness Superior Council was joined by a distinguished Brazilian delegation that included Linneu Carlos da Costa Lima, Deputy Minister of Production and Agroenergy; Silvio Crestana, President of EMBRAPA; Eduardo de Carvalho, President of UNICA; Luis Custódio Cotta Martins, President of SINDAÇÚCAR - Minas Gerais; and Silas Oliva, Director of Petrobras. Governor Bush was accompanied by several key board members and staff of Florida FTAA, including Ambassador Charles E. Cobb, Chairman of Florida FTAA; Brian C. Dean, Executive Director of Florida FTAA and the co-chairs of the Florida FTAA Ethanol Advocacy Committee: Jorge L. Arrizurieta, Chair, International Policy Group, Akerman Senterfitt; Dominique Virchaux, Managing Partner, Virchaux Partners; and Mario Fernandez, President, COFE Properties, LLC. Moreno was joined by several key officials from the IDB, including senior staff of the bank's section for Alternative Sources of Energy. Additional attendees included corporate leaders, scientific experts, and other local government leaders. In addition, the launch featured championship IndyCar driver Vitor Meira, senior IndyCar executives, including Vice President for League Development John Lewis, and the Indy Ethanol Show Car. IndyCar is adopting 100% ethanol as its fuel of choice for the 2007 racing season, which begins at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Saturday March 24. Both IndyCar and its racing partner the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC) were honored at the launch with the 2007 Akerman Senterfitt Ethanol Innovator in Sports Award. According to IndyCar executives, "ethanol is less costly, better for the environment, and is a superior octane burner, actually increasing the speed and power the sport demands." Tom Slunecka, Executive Director of EPIC, commented that "the IndyCar Series choice of 100 percent fuel-grade ethanol...sends a message to consumers that performance and environmental responsibility go hand in hand when choosing ethanol-enriched fuel at the pump." Bush, Rodrigues, and Moreno discussed the main objectives of the commission, which include: promoting increased ethanol blended fuel use throughout the region; promoting the integration of technical and scientific research efforts across the hemisphere related to the production and distribution of ethanol; determining investment needs in both agriculture and infrastructure to enable a hemispheric wide market for ethanol blended fuel; determining the economic and environmental implications of carbon credits produced by the project; encouraging the development of environmentally sound ethanol operations; and recommending a set of actions in order to create an international market for ethanol. The commission will educate governments and legislatures throughout the hemisphere on ethanol through a series of "road shows." In addition to disseminating information, generating media coverage, and promoting public discussion of the benefits of ethanol, these road shows will secure partnerships from local officials and interested groups in order to expand ethanol usage and production for export. Former Minister Rodrigues spoke of Brazil's role as a global leader in ethanol technology, production and distribution, pointing out that the country produces approximately 4 billion gallons of ethanol annually. He stated that "Brazil's ethanol capacities and technology position the nation to provide leadership throughout the hemisphere," and emphasized that "now, with the partnership of the State of Florida and the establishment of a formal forum of cooperation through the commission, countries throughout the Americas will benefit from the expansion of ethanol usage and production." Brazil is Florida's top trading partner, with two-way trade totaling 10.9 billion U.S. dollars in 2005. Governor Bush emphasized the potential role the committee can play in contributing to decreasing U.S. dependence on imported oil by means of diversifying the United States' fuel economy. He stated, "Through this commission, Florida has a great opportunity to be on the forefront of promoting an energy policy that strengthens our national security, stimulates economic development, increases protection for our environment and promotes free trade within the hemisphere." Moreno's participation in and support for the Interamerican Ethanol Commission reflects his perspective that the commission will serve to spur economic development and to alleviate poverty in the Latin American and Caribbean region. The three leaders agreed that cooperation on renewable energy has the potential to serve as a uniting force in the Americas, contributing toward economic growth and a cleaner environment. All three alluded to the significant opportunities expanded ethanol production holds for sustainable development and job creation throughout the Western Hemisphere. The idea to form this commission grew out of a policy proposal Governor Bush submitted to Washington in April. His "Hemispheric Wide Approach to Ethanol," holds that the United States should adopt a bold initiative to pump 15 billion gallons of ethanol annually into the marketplace by 2015 ("15 by '15") - nearly 10% of current national demand for gasoline and double the amount required by the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
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The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.
in the U.S. in most places you canot open burn even in liousiana where most of the cain comes from the burn ban is a fight every year .
you think about trying to burn 750.000 acers of land every 6 mounths ,( not going to happen )
now if the U.S. Goverment would get the pole out of where they stuck it .
Quit paying farm money for rich poeple not to grow food , and make them grow corn or some other plant or not get paid then and only then will the U.S. be able to make it into a real and money making business
one thing i do not understand about brasil and its system WHY DOES ETHANOL GO UP IN PRICE WHEN OIL DOES ?????????