Florida Governor's Style is to Encourage Ethanol Imports Rather Than Local Production of Ethanol

Florida Governor to Lobby for Ethanol
By Inae Riveras
Reuters
November 6, 2007

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said on Monday he will encourage Congress members to lobby for more ethanol use and a reduction in the 54-cent-a-gallon tariff on Brazilian imports of the biofuel.

The use of more cane-based ethanol is seen as a way to curb greenhouse gas emissions in the state, which is aiming to reduce them to 1990 levels by 2015.

"My style is to encourage (ethanol imports) and I have great friends in the Florida delegation in Washington, senator Mel Martinez, also senator Bill Nelson...I will encourage them to do exactly that," Crist told Brazilian and U.S. businessmen.

"We are a gateway (for ethanol to the United States) and we're all about reducing taxes," Crist said a meeting at Sao Paulo's Industry Federation (Fiesp).

As the tariff is in force at least until 2009, any possible change would take place beyond that.

Crist came to Brazil along with about 200 delegates on a mission to improve bilateral trade. Brazil is already Florida's leading partner, with two-way trade worth at around $11 billion per year.

Crist also will visit an ethanol mill in Sao Paulo and Brazil's state oil company Petrobras' headquarters.

Florida next year will discuss ways to reduce gas emissions. The adoption of a 10 percent mix of ethanol into gasoline is an option, said Michael Sole, Florida's secretary of Environmental Protection, who also attended the event.

He said a recommendation to the government should be made by October 2008.

"Florida will be a tremendous ethanol market, which is going to grow, and would be an important gateway," said Marcos Jank, president of Brazil's Sugar Cane Industry Union (Unica).

Florida demands 8.6 billion gallons of gasoline per year and currently does not produce any of the biofuel.

Logistics problems to get corn-based ethanol from the Midwest to Florida are seen as an advantage to Brazilian imports.

Brazil currently exports minimal amounts of ethanol to Florida, all through the Caribbean, where the Brazilian product is reprocessed and re-exported to the U.S. market exempt of the tariff, through the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) trade pact.

Brazil and the United States signed a broad agreement to work together to advance biofuels technology, help spread ethanol production and set common standards for ethanol trade, when President George W. Bush visited the country in March.

The accord did not include changes in the tariff despite a direct appeal to Bush by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on the matter.

Florida Eyes Dominican Sugarcane for Clean Fuel Mandate

SANTO DOMINGO. - The State of Florida needs to find permanent suppliers of ethanol to cover a demand estimated at 786 million gallons starting next year, when it implements a norm calling for a 10% mix of that fuel in gasoline.

Florida Gateway president Brian C. Dean, interviewed by newspaper Listin Diario on the conference “Establishing a hemispherical biofuels market” dictated in Santo Domingo, said Florida has taken on the development and use of biofuels “very seriously.”

He said that state must look for an ethanol exporter in the region, for which Dominican Republic, with its experience in sugar cane and sufficient lands, could be a key ally to reach part of its objective.

Dean, invited to the country by the National Energy Commission (CNE), said Gateway Florida aims to get public policies implemented in Latin American and Caribbean countries to support the development of the ethanol and biofuels industry.

In the Dominican case, the executive said in addition to sugar cane, piñon jatropha, higuereta and other plants that have yielded good results could also be used to produce ethanol.

He added that within the Lula-Bush initiative and the biofuels development agreement, Dominican Republic is among the first four countries eligible for funding to develop clean energy projects.