An Infinite Supply of Finite Resources 79Meanwhile, trucks hitched to loaded triple trailers were headed to the
nearby biofuels plant. The off-loaded cane was washed before a series of
revolving knives and presses separated the juice from the plant’s fibrous
matter, called bagasse. The juice was further refined into biofuel, while
the bagasse was burned. From the plant’s boilers generating electricity,
to the trucks and tractors working the fields, energy from sugarcane
powered it all. For each barrel of energy consumed to produce biofuel,
eight barrels of energy were returned.
Cars and light-duty pickups were flex-fuel equipped, able to oper-
ate on biofuel and gasoline. As Brazil’s economy and population
grew, so also did the amount of land planted in sugarcane. When I
quizzed our Brazilian expert about how the country planned for even
greater demand, his formula was simple: more land, more mecha-
nization, and more biofuel plants. The strategy for liquid energy relied
on advances in technology, a favorable growing environment, and de-
ploying more land.
In 00 , the United States launched its own biofuel initiative. The
Energy Policy Act came with a pledge to reduce dependence on foreign
oil and expand production of so-called renewable fuels. Henceforward,
set volumes of biofuels would be blended with gasoline. With a ratio of
energy out to energy in of :, sugarcane was the ideal feedstock.
But America lacked the climate for widespread sugarcane production.
Biofuels made from cellulose like wood, grasses, and crop residues had
a ratio of :, but were not yet commercially scalable. Any ratio less than
: required subsidies to cover the added costs of blending and distrib
uting the finished product to filling stations.^ The United States had
plenty of corn that could be made into biofuel, but for every one barrel
of energy used to produce corn biofuel, between 0. 7 to . 7 barrels were
returned.
Still, with biofuels now mandated, the only way to comply was to use
corn. The easiest way to cover the subsidies was obligating consumers to
pay them directly, each time they bought fuel. When challenged, both
political parties defended the law as a bridge until cellulosic technology
could catch up. More than two decades later, the promise of cellulosic
biofuels has yet to materialize. Of the 7.9 billion gallons of biofuels pro-