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Loading ...Time for a New Biodiesel Policy in Brazil?
Friday, July 17th, 2009Luiz Prado says it’s time for Brazil to adopt a “serious” national policy on biodiesel. I think he has a point. Brazil has had a biodiesel policy — er, make that a biodiesel program — since 2003. It has a number of elements, but the lynchpins are a blending mandate (currently set at B4), and […]
Brazil Sets New Records for Ethanol and Biodiesel
Wednesday, January 21st, 2009The Brazilian government reports that its consumption and exports of ethanol set new records in 2008, as did the consumption and production of biodiesel. According to figures released by the Renewable Fuels Department of the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME), Brazil produced 24.5 billion liters of ethanol in 2008, and exported 5.16 billion. The […]
Will Lula Protect Brazil’s Reefs?
Thursday, November 20th, 2008In September Brazil’s Environment Minister, Carlos Minc, caused quite a stir in conservation circles. He announced that he was sending a decree to the Planalto Palace for President Lula to sign that would significantly enhance Brazil’s protection of its coral reefs, something conservationists and marine biologists have been pushing for since at least the late […]
Update: Mapping Brazil’s Basins to Prepare Against Oil Spills
Tuesday, September 9th, 2008Over a year ago I had a post here about the efforts of Brazil’s Environment Ministry (MMA) to prepare comprehensive atlases of the Brazilian sedimentary basins where oil and gas exploration, drilling and related activities are permitted. [80% of Brazil’s oil and gas exploration/exploitation occurs offshore.] The atlas covering the very important Santos Basin was […]
Brazil Now Third Largest Biodiesel Producer
Sunday, August 24th, 2008Synopsis in English: The Brazilian Presidency proudly proclaims that Brazil is now the third largest producer of biodeisel behind Germany and the US. Brazil now has 41 biodiesel production plants in commercial operation and 52 plants in the process of getting authorization from the National Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuel Agency (Agência Nacional de Petróleo, […]
Brazil’s Biofuel Production Capacity
Saturday, June 2nd, 2007The National Agency for Petroleum, National Gas and Biofuels (Agência Nacional do Petróleo, Gás Natural e Biocombustíveis – ANP) has updated its table of authorized biofuel production capacity in Brazil. Three things struck me immediately from reading this table: (1) the geographic spread — by my count, there are now biofuel plants in half of […]
Consumer Protection in LAC V – A Sample Panorama of LAC Consumer News
Friday, May 11th, 2007When I started this series, I promised a five-part overview of consumer protection in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). So far I’ve looked at how consumer agencies and consumer NGOs in the region celebrated World Consumer Rights Day, how intergovernmental bodies have influenced the development of consumer law in the region, the panorama of […]
A Change in Environmental Licensing of Oil & Gas Projects?
Tuesday, March 6th, 2007Synopsis in English: Just days after the PAC was unveiled, the Environment Ministry’s (MMA) #2 man, Claudio Langone, met with the director of the oil and gas (O&G) industry’s trade association (IBP), João Carlos de Luca, to discuss possible changes in environmental licensing of oil and gas projects. The meeting made some in the environment […]
PAC’ing Brazil II: Regulatory Agencies
Friday, March 2nd, 2007In Part I, I provided an overview of what the Program for Accelerated Growth (Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento – PAC) proposed by President Lula is and why it matters to the issues I discuss in The Temas Blog. I also discussed its most direct impact on environment policy, the proposed changes in environmental licensing. […]
Mapping Brazil’s Basins to Prepare Against Oil Spills / Atlas de bacias sedimentares vão garantir segurança contra vazamento de petróleo
Wednesday, February 14th, 2007Synopsis in English: In the year 2000, a major oil spill in Rio’s Guanabara Bay finally stirred Brazil out of complacency about planning, preparing and protecting against such releases, whether from tankers or platforms. In addition to normative work (such as Law 9966 and recent National Environment Council work on discharges from maritime platforms), the […]