Ethanol from Brazil not looking so good

[fastpat]

A Brazilian writes:

There Is No Ethanol Revolution in Brazil

by André Kenji de Sousa
Most ethanol apologists like to use the example of Brazil. Unfortunately, I live in Brazil and I see no ethanol revolution here. In fact, the heavily subsidized ethanol program (Pro-Alcool) used to be an ecological and social disaster. From 1975 to 1989, the Brazilian government spent nine billion dollars in subsidies for ethanol production (and that's not counting special loans, that were never paid, from state-owned banks): Nine billion dollars in a country like Brazil (where one can buy a can of soda for less than fifty cents of a dollar) is a pornographic amount of money.

Large areas of land were wasted for monoculture (some people complain one of the most fertile lands of the country, in the Ribeirão Preto region, is being degraded by sugar cane monoculture), semi-slave (and child) labor were heavily used. Nasty environmental problems were only surpassed in the 1990's, like the pollution of rivers by vinhoto (produced in ethanol refining) and crop burning (until the mechanization of the crops, that technique were used to cut sugarcane). C'mon, greens and progressives: that's not such a good thing to defend. http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig7/desousa1.html

[kach22i]

The GM engineers said nothing of this on Autoline Detroit several months ago.

Who are you going to trust GM or Lew Rockwell's column?

[fastpat]

Exactly. I imagine there is some truth to Paste's post, but it's important to always keep in mind that people like Lew Rockwell earn a living by being an alarmist and satisfying the paranoia of Paste and his psychological brothers in arms.

Well, I see the representative of the stupid has posted. I'd like to hear from a somewhat more informed person; i.e. almost anyone else.

[red-beard]

Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Ethanol = loser