The United States wants to link up with Brazil on biofuels development with an eye toward building a global market in renewable oil substitutes like ethanol, a senior US diplomat said Tuesday. Ethanol, from plant products, of which Brazil and the United States are the world's largest producers, can be the catalyst for a partnership between the two countries, said Nicholas Burns, the US under secretary of state for political affairs.
"We are trying to work to establish an agreement that we might together continue to invest in research and development so that biofuels can be even more efficient," Burns said in a talk at the University of Sao Paulo ahead of meetings with Brazilian officials.
Burns, the US State Department's number-three official, said Brazil and the United States should work together to help other countries learn to produce biofuels.
He said this could lead to the creation of "a global ethanol market with ethanol as a true commodity" that would lessen the power of the world's oil exporters.
"This is a democratizing force in the world. We don't have to be at the mercy of the oil producers forever, we don't have to be under the influence of countries that have a distorted impact in the world, like Iran and Venezuela," Burns said.
Tapping into its huge sugar-cane crop, Brazil has for years been a leading producer and consumer of ethanol, while in the United States, government support for energy diversification programs has given a large boost to corn-based ethanol production.
"I hope very much this will be the year where we have an agreement," Burns said.
