When Castro dies and Raul, I don't know, gets religion or gets hanged from a lamppost, I don't care which, ethanol could be the panacea that brings Cuba into the 21st Century with a bang.

It seems wise to make it known that once, now long ago, cars ran in Cuba on about 15% ethanol

The ability of ethanol to boost the economy is not the most compelling part of the story. Cuba will never produce ethanol cheaper than Brazil, and Venezuela will pump them full of oil anyway.

Castro's comments about ethanol are fairly recent, which make the upgrade very suspicious. I can not draw a line between him contradicting himself and still having control of Cuba's oligarchy.

I would look for articles in Granma, and such, on the upgrade. If there is nothing on the matter there then the obvious conclusion is that the gov't is just publishing articles under the Castro name to control the minds of the people.

Todopoderso,

I don't think it's fair to say that Cuba will "NEVER" produce ethanol cheaper than Brazil. Under the current system, that is certainly true. But the Brazilian learnings of efficient ethanol production can be applied in Cuba once there are some sane people running the show there. Remember that Brazil subsidized the ethanol industry for more than 20 years in developing their current techniques and those are investments that Cuba won't have to make, in other words they won't have to reinvent the wheel. Not only that but Cuba is also much closer to the US than Brazil, which would make transportation costs of Cuban ethanol much cheaper than Brazilian ethanol.

I don't make it a habit to read Castro's articles for later reference but I don't remember him saying he was against ethanol in general. Corn based ethanol in the US is being propped up by government subsidies and there are already reports of the price of corn based foods being affected by the diverting of corn supplies. As far as I can tell it's a big government pork/feel good program for farmers and Sheryl Crowe environmentalists.

Does this boil down to an American lefty vs. Cuban left argument? It's important not to moore up the facts out of spite.

Conducter Hank,

You're right. I meant to say "given the current state" Cuba will not produce ethanol cheaper than Brazil. But given the recent discovery of vast amounts of oil in the Gulf of Mexico, through use of a new technique, the pie-in-the-sky Cuban gov't that is dreamed about on this site would be better off drilling. Especially with how much more money could be made at no expense to local foodstuff. I know I won't pay $7.50 for a Guarapo.

Mr Sawyer,

Your suspicions are not off base. Ethanol is increasingly more inefficient than gas, and the refining process creates a lot of pollution. Gov't and the people who trade Corn on the commodities market want you and I to believe they have solved the "oil dependance" problem. Unfortunately, no one is explanaing to the Mexicans how increasing the price of their tortilla's will benefit the rest of mankind.

The ethanol issue is complex. Castro said that US interest in ethanol would result in a genocide that would kill billions of starvation. That kind of rhetoric is obviously ridiculous.

Secondly, I'm against all farm subsidies. And corn-based ethanol has been proven to be much less efficient than Sugar-based ethanol.

I generally agree with the principal that we shouldn't be using scarce resources like topsoil to create energy when there are many more reasonable and cheap alternatives like Nuclear and, hell, oil. As expensive as a barrel of oil is today, relative to what it's been in the last quarter century, it's still the cheapest way to run a car. And every time the scare of peak oil comes around, we find new reserves.

The point to the post is that the media repeats any statement allegedly made by fidel as if he were some sort of energy expert and then doesn't connect the dots when the regimes functionaries make contradictory statements and when the regime carries out contradictory actions.

Oh and by the way, rising corn prices shouldn't alarm anyone. When one item becomes to expensive, consumers substitute with less expensive items (i.e. Chicken for beef, etc.) That's the way the market works.

A robust sugar cane ethanol inudstry in a free Cuba won't have to take food off of anyone's plate. Right now Cuba produces less Sugar than it has in 100 years. Renewed committment to Sugar will create more food not less for Cubans. There's a lot of underutilized resources in Cuba.

Does anybody actually believe those Granma "editorials," regardless of subject matter, are actually composed by their supposed author? Please, don't make me laugh.

Well I certainly don't but the fact is that they are attributing the comments to him and they sound like the bombast we are accustomed to hearing from him, but that's beside the point. The point is the contradictory signals they send out all the time since july 31st.