Sugar cane ethanol’s not-so-sweet future

Despite environmental and economic benefits, trade protectionism, production issues likely to stand in the way of Brazilian exports hitting U.S. energy market en masse.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Imagine a fuel that does not come from the Middle East, is about six times more economical to produce than corn ethanol and has the potential to help the environment because it requires few chemicals to grow.

Then imagine there’s virtually no chance such a thing will ever come to the United States, at least in any appreciable numbers.


Meet sugar cane ethanol, a product fueling economic growth in Brazil, a nation that between its oil reserves and the burgeoning ethanol industry has attained energy self-sufficiency.

Brazil has spent billions of dollars over decades of research to develop the technology to mass produce ethanol from the millions of cane acres that spread along the South American landscape.

But due to a number of factors, primary among them the simple logistics of not being able to grow enough of the crop domestically, along with stringent tariffs against Brazilian sugar cane, that success is unlikely to be replicated in the U.S.

CNNMoney.com