U.S. Congress has voted to protect the domestic ethanol industry and extend the secondary tariff of 54 cents per gallon on imported ethanol. The American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) praised the move saying that secondary tariff, which is now in place until January 1, 2009, will ensure continued growth and investment in the domestic ethanol industry. Ethanol currently attracts a 51 cent per gallon blender's credit no matter the country of origin.

Brazil is the world's largest ethanol exporter, so you'd think they would be upset by this decision. But just days later the Honorable Jeb Bush, Governor of the State of Florida; His Excellency Roberto Rodrigues, President of the Superior Council of Agribusiness of FIESP and Former Minister of Agriculture of Brazil; and His Excellency Luis Alberto Moreno, President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) announced the formation of the Interamerican Ethanol Commission. Brazil produces approximately 4 billion gallons of ethanol annually and is Florida's top trading partner.

Bush, Rodrigues and Moreno will serve as co-chairs of the commission which has as its mission to promote the usage of ethanol in blended fuel throughout the Americas. Other objectives of the commission are promoting the integration of technical and scientific research efforts across the hemisphere related to the production and distribution of ethanol; determining investment needs in both agriculture and infrastructure to enable a hemispheric wide market for ethanol blended fuel; determining the economic and environmental implications of carbon credits produced by the project; encouraging the development of environmentally sound ethanol operations; and recommending a set of actions in order to create an international market for ethanol.

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[Source: Renewable Energy Access]

Governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, has seen the light and it comes in the form of a biofuel. The St. Petersburg Times reports that after reading a paper written by Mario Fernandez, a former sugar trader from Key Biscayne, Gov. Bush has seemingly become one of the nation's foremost advocates of ethanol. In an interview, he said, "This one was one of those light bulb deals for me."

Mr. Fernandez' paper argued that ethanol would provide a three-fold win by reducing America's dependence on foreign oil, helping the environment and bringing biofuel production to Florida farmers.

In April, Gov. Bush wrote a letter to his brother, the President, advising that the 54 cent per gallon tariff on Brazilian ethanol be removed. Included with the letter was a 9-page paper written by the Florida Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) which recommended a plan to pump 15 billion gallons of ethanol into the marketplace by 2015. This would account for about 10% of the US's annual gas consumption.

Bush says his new stance on ethanol came from a convergence of climate issues, the environment and Florida's role in the hemispheric free trade debate.

Bush believes that global demand for biofuels will offer room for both the US and Latin American production to co-exist. However, his efforts are bound to face an uphill battle. Bradley Krohn, president of US EnviroFuels, says "The (Florida ethanol) industry needs that 54-cent tariff in order to grow. Otherwise we are simply shifting our dependence from the Middle East to South America and inhibiting the financial community from investing."

The tariff does not expire until 2008.

[Source: St. Petersburg Times]