(For starters: if Brazil can build a 1000 km (700 miles), US$ 500 million ethanol pipeline, then so can we.
Petrobras planning $500-mil ethanol pipeline network
http://www.platts.com/Oil/News/7388034.xml?S=printer&
Also, the time is ripe, as sub-Saharan Africa is doing very well economically (growing at 6-7% a year), and China is rapidly becoming the dominant force on the continent, willing to invest in big and risky projects.
IMF Reports Strong Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa
http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-04-22-voa1.cfm
Ok let's roll:
A quick word about this fantastic vision:
1. The Okapi pipeline project -- bringing vast amounts of fresh water to the Middle East -- is the continuation of a vision shared by many dictators, most notably Mobutu, Kabila, by many an Oil sheik (amongst them King Fahd) and by democratic leaders like Namibia's former president Sam Nujoma.
But hey, this time the Americans are involved in the project, so don't be too harsh...
http://www.oasisfoundation.org/oasis/okapipipeline.asp
2. The Sudan oil pipeline already exists and is being extended down south; China will send a million communist troops to defend it, so don't touch it: Sudan is China's largest direct foreign investment project, and its single biggest oil partner. If they're on board, success is guaranteed:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ar ... Dec22.html
3. Just add the Lorenzo biofuel pipeline...
4. The biofuels can be processed for free, so the EROEI of those fuels is fantastically high. This is so because the Congo River is the last one on the planet not to have been exploited for hydropower. As the UN and countless other sources know, the Congo can deliver electricity to power the entire African continent and sell excess to Europe.
So we produce our biofuels virtually for free (at least the processing and the pumping).
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')The scheme, which will initially focus on the Inga Rapids, aims to eventually generate more than enough electricity to power Africa’s industrialization.
Surplus electricity can be sold to places like Spain and Italy in southern Europe via an interconnector under the Mediterranean Sea.
