Hugo
Chavez: Corn
should feed people, not cars
Trinidad Guardian
Port
Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
05 13 07
A
joint summit declaration traced a middle ground,
recognising “the potential
of biofuels to diversify South America’s
energy matrix” but also stressing the importance
a balance with agricultural production and environmental
preservation.
Venezuela
President Hugo Chavez appeared to soften his
opposition to a US-Brazil ethanol deal at the
end of his two-day energy summit on Venezuela’s
Margarita island after running up against a staunchly
defiant Brazil.
At
a news conference at the end of the summit which
ran from April 16 to 17, Chavez insisted
that he doesn’t object to ethanol, which
the US and Brazil have agreed to jointly promote.
However, he said he does oppose US plans to step
up production of ethanol made from corn. He called
it “taking corn away from people and the
food chain to feed automobiles a terrible thing.”
He said he has no objection to Brazilian ethanol
produced from sugar cane.
“We aren’t against biofuels,” Chavez
said at a two-day South American energy summit
that ended April 17.
“In fact we want to import ethanol from
Brazil.” He said Venezuela needs some 200,000
barrels of ethanol a day to be used as a fuel additive.
He also urged the US to lower tariffs on Brazilian
ethanol made from sugar cane, a point that has
been pressed with Washington by Brazilian President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Chavez
came out harshly against a US-Brazil pact last
month to promote ethanol’s production
in Latin America, warning that rampant production
would monopolise cropland and starve the poor.
He also raised concerns shared by experts that
all the arable land on earth cannot meet the full
world demand for fuel.
Those
criticisms were dismissed by the president of
Brazil, where about eight out of every ten new
cars are “flex fuel” vehicles that
can run on gasoline, ethanol or any combination
of the two.
“The truth is that biofuel is a way out
for the poor countries of the world,” Silva
told reporters after the summit. “The problem
of food in the world now is not lack of production
of food. It’s a lack of income for people
to buy food.”
A
joint summit declaration traced a middle ground,
recognising “the potential of biofuels to
diversify South America’s energy matrix” but
also stressing the importance a balance with agricultural
production and environmental preservation.
Amid
the differences, Chavez had gradually modified
his criticisms, insisting that Brazil’s ethanol
plans are fundamentally different from Washington’s.
David
Fleischer, a political scientist at Brazil’s
University of Brasilia, said Chavez appeared to
backtrack in order to avoid a confrontation with
Brazil.
“Chavez was convinced to back off,” Fleischer
said. “His main problem is with (US President)
Bush.”
Chavez
denied shifting his position, saying, “We
have always said that the bio-ethanol project ...
that Brazil has had for more than 30 years is very
different ... from the madness that the US president
has proposed. It’s completely the opposite.”
Officials from a dozen South American countries
attended the summit on Margarita Island, where
Chavez was seeking support for a South American
natural gas pipeline and other energy projects.
Silva said leaders did not discuss the proposed
creation of an Opec-like cartel for natural gas.
Silva
also questioned the purpose of a Chavez-backed
proposal for a regional development bank, asking
how it would distinguish itself from established
lenders such as the International Monetary Fund,
World Bank or Brazil’s own national development
bank.
“First, we have to decide why we want such
a bank, what is its role, in order to tell whether
it is worthwhile to participate,” Silva told
reporters.
Chavez
proposed a South American “energy
treaty” based on four strategic areas: oil,
natural gas, alternative energy, and energy conservation.
He said the leaders agreed to create a South American
energy council to oversee those plans.
Chavez
invited South American companies to invest in
oil exploration projects in Venezuela’s
Orinoco River region, saying the investments would
be used to create a $5 billion development fund.
Trinidad
Guardian
Thursday 10th May, 2007
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©2007 Trinidad Guardian. All Rights Reserved.
