Why can't the USA be fuel independant like Brazil ?

Question

Brazil grows all of its energy needs by Sugarcane, bio-diesel, theUSA has plenty of farmland to do the smae thing yet our government does nothing and we fun Muslim terrorists by buying their oil

Answer 1

Our government is blocked by the monopolistic corporations that control the energy industry, unlike Brazil, which does not have to deal with entities like GM and Chevron. As long as big businesses like GM and Chevron continue to act independent of efforts to become energy independent, exploiting less environmentally friendly sources like oil, energy options such as the electric car, the EV-1, will be blocked forever. To understand better read this article.

Answer 2

Exactly, but to compare Brazil and the USA is like the old apples and oranges. The USA consumes far more oil/energy per capita than does Brazil. Also, Brazil did not start this yesterday, they started it about the same time President Carter tried to prod the USA to work toward energy independence in the late 1970s during the OPEC oil crisis. Naturally, the energy powers that be who control so many politicians here in the USA and the auto industry and the military industrial complex worked against President Carter's goals, and when Ronald Reagan is elected, any chance toward energy independence was dead. WHY? Because the republican party is primarily funded by those same energy companies that would lose billions if the USA made real strides toward energy independence. Combine that with a huge oil find in Brazil, who still used oil by the way only they do not have to import much, and you have a clearer idea why the USA is not now like Brazil.

Answer 3

Unfortunately, natural energy made from sugarcane, corn, etc. could not fill America's needs for fuel. Not the way we use it so freely. SUVs, big trucks for a two person family, high speed driving, large homes that burn enormous amounts of fuel. A lady recently cried to me that her 3,500 foot home used over $600 worth of gas and electricity last month. I cried for her like a baby.
She was driving a Cadillac SUV that got less than 15 miles to the gallon in town. Big family? Nope. Only her and her husband.

Answer 4

I would think we have a higher standard of living and we aren't funding Muslim terrorists by buying oil in the Middle East. We did fund terrorists in 1998 when we bombed the terrorists camps in Kabul, Afghanistan with $750 million of cruise missiles to kill 5 or 6 terrorists. Bin-Laden took the unexploded missiles and sold them to China for $10 million. Now, China has cruise missile technology and the terrorists have a wad of cash. Whoops. If Bush had been there we would have bombed them anyway, but followed up by invading to see the unexploded missiles while we walked by them.

Answer 5

that's an uncomplicated answer - Oil agencies. they have countless money and that they have got countless administration of the government. In college, my boyfriend on the time replaced right into a chemical engineer and for one in all his initiatives he made ethanol from leftover produce on the food market and an uncomplicated distillery set up in his kitchen house. He then confirmed that the only subject you will need replaced right into a distinctive carburetor and any motor vehicle ought to run on ethanol. That replaced into 15 years in the past. there are various commercial sites in cities around the U. S. that are abandoned or unused that must be switched over to ethanol refineries - so because it fairly isn't any excuse. they only must be demolished, wiped sparkling up and reused.

Answer 6

We can become independent and everyone would be happier, but here is some of the interference:

-oil companies have been restricted from pumping our own oil and refining due to environmentalists
-the big companies have sunk tons of money in developing and pumping oil in Arab countries - because they were stiffeled in the US.
-the US is used to lower prices at the pump than possibly and other country - some are $6.00 + per gal. We want cheap oil.
-before we can develop alternatives (which should have been developedd long, long ago) we have to choose between cutting off overseas oil and paying much more for fuel.

Personally, I vote to pump and refine our own oil, and pay more while we develope alternatives that can be provided to the general public. Environmentalists have caused us to be where we are today; environmentalists should take the lead in making alternatives readily available. Once viable options are available at our corner filling stations, oil use will diminish and one day be a thing of the past.
We have the technology, we don't have the "big bucks" environmentalists who are interested in producing it. And there are enough 'big bucks' activists who could put their money where their mouth is.

Answer 7

The most recent block comes in the form of the corn lobby. They are very threatened of the thought of removing our 60 cent a gallon trade barrier against foreign ethanol.

Corn is not the most efficient use of land for creating ethanol. Biomass is more efficient than corn or wheat.

Also oil companies do not want to distrubute ethanol until their feet are held to the fire. This is because oil is so relatively cheap and easy for them to acquire.

Lastly - be sure to discuss E80 80% ethanol in this discussion - not the more common E20. There are a lot of misconceptions in the US about ethanol.

Answer 8

A) Brazil is not bigger (though it is about the size of the continental US).
B) The US can be independent with fuel.
C) Big Oil Companies won't let us since they have the politicians in their pockets (you realize that everyone in the Bush Admin were all at one point working in the oil/exploration business)

Answer 9

the average American uses about a thousand times more energy than the average Brazilian. We buy oil from some Islamic countries because it is way cheaper than producing bio-diesel. Much of our oil comes from "regular countries" like Mexico and Russia. We don't buy oil from countries that sponsor terrorism, China does.

Answer 10

Then the big oil companies couldn't blame the arabs for the high cost of oil,and they couldn't pass the high cost to the consumer.Plus,there isn't many polititians that have any stock in farm land,which means no profit for the rich polititians.