Agriculture's energy: the trouble with ethanol in Brazil's green revolution

Abstract

"Thomas D. Rogers's history of a modernizing Brazil tracks what happened when a key government program -- created in the 1970s by the nation's military regime -- aspired to harness energy produced by sugarcane agriculture to power the country's economy. The National Alcohol Program, known as Proálcool, was a deliberate economic strategy designed to incentivize ethanol production and reduce gasoline consumption. As Brazil's capacity grew and as international oil shocks continued, the regime's planners doubled down on Proálcool. Drawing financing from international lenders and curiosity from other oil-dependent countries, for a time it was the world's largest oil-substitution and renewable-energy program"--