End Notes
As summer approaches and we enter another hurricane season forecasted to be every bit as gnarly as last year’s season, we are all probably more concerned about the rising prices of fuel than at any other time of the year. It’s time to begin focusing on developing other fuel sources — we need to look to other nations and the steps they are taking.
Ethanol already is used in some U.S. Midwestern states in small quantities as an additive. But Brazil has done something more radical — it pressed car makers to modify engines so they can run on much higher percentages of ethanol.
Brazil’s program started three decades ago with a government program to mix gasoline with sugar–based ethanol. Today, nearly 20 percent of Brazil’s cars run on ethanol only, in addition to the 50 percent of new cars that have “mix–fuel” ethanol–and–oil engines.
Recently, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva dedicated a biodiesel plant in Minas Gerais state, which will produce 12 million liters a year of this fuel. “We are telling the world that it is absolutely possible to produce fuel from renewable resources,” Lula said at the dedication ceremony. The plant will produce fuel made from sunflower oil, soybeans, and African palm. Farmers who sell these products to diesel refineries will get tax breaks ranging from 32 percent to 100 percent.
Renewable energy resources help take care of the earth and its people. It is time for us to learn from our global siblings and make a strong commitment to renewable fuels.
CCNH is dedicated to sustainable lifestyles and responsible stewardship of the earth. Reading the Holistic Times online is one way you can practice environmental awareness.
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