U.S. law assists Brazilian ethanol imports

Des Moines Register
By PHILIP BRASHER • pbrasher@dmreg.com • February 21, 2010

Washington, D.C. — The law that guarantees Iowa's ethanol producers a growing demand for their product also is creating a market for a foreign rival: Brazilian companies that make the fuel from sugar cane.

Brazilian ethanol already is coming into the United States. Like corn ethanol, the Brazilian product counts toward meeting the nation's annual mandates for conventional ethanol.

But Congress in 2007 also required refiners to start using more environmentally friendly alternatives, known as advanced biofuels, that would result in lower greenhouse gas emissions than conventional ethanol. For now, Brazil's sugar cane ethanol is the most widely available fuel that qualifies for mandates that will rise to 5 billion gallons by 2022.

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