Superpowers assemble!

We’ve been critical of Brazil’s ethanol industry before, what with the myriad human rights/environmental issues and all, but we still find ourselves glad that they’re helping us with cellulosic ethanol research - according to Reuters, the U.S. National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) and Brazil’s Center for Research and Development (CENPES) “will join forces to speed up research into cellulose-derived biofuels.” In addition to speeding up progress in our countries, this alliance plans to help developing nations in Africa, Central America, and the Caribbean with their emerging biofuel industries.

Brazil, we’re certain, is pushing to team up with us because their own ethanol industry was hit by the global credit crunch pretty hard and they need to lean on our (generally speaking) more stable economy. But the more heads we put together on this research, the better, and hopefully the president-elect won’t allow us to depend on foreign ethanol the way we’ve depended on foreign oil in decades past. Plus, America and Brazil are the biggest ethanol producers on the planet, so it was only a matter of time before we combined forces in some capacity. And who knows, maybe their enthusiasm for flex-fuel cars will rub off on us.