DATAGRO'S PLINIO NASTARI: CALIFORNIA'S LCFS DECISION SHOULD OPEN DOORS TO BRAZILIAN ETHANOL IN FOURTEEN OTHER STATES

Plinio Nastari, founder of leading sugar and ethanol consultancy Datagro, believes that the recent decision by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to approve the Low Carbon Fuel Standards sets the stage for a number of other states to pass similar legislation, with the goal of reducing carbon emissions through the use of clean-burning fuels, like sugarcane ethanol. Mr. Nastari's estimates show that the expansion of the markets for Brazilian ethanol represents about 30% of the total US market for gasoline.

According to a Brazilian business newspaper, Mr. Nastari believes that, "the United States will have to import sugarcane ethanol because (the production of) corn ethanol will not be enough, nor is corn ethanol clean enough to meet the standards approved in California", where the goal is to promote a 10% reduction in the carbon intensity of all fuels by 2020.

BRAZIL ETHANOL PRODUCERS PLEASED WITH LCFS DECISION BY THE CALIFORNIA AIR RESOURCES BOARD

A series of initiatives to ensure that Brazilian producers have greater access to foreign markets are coming to fruition. Unica’s lobbying efforts in California are a case in point: on April 24, the California Air Resources Board “vote(d) to recognize sugarcane ethanol’s carbon reduction levels”, recognizing that “sugarcane ethanol’s carbon intensity is even lower than initially calculated” by the Board. Unica believes that the “decision means sugarcane ethanol will be in greater demand in California in the years to come”.

The CARB resolution caps the efforts initiated by Unica around the year 2000, when the organization’s officers, including former president Eduardo Pereira de Carvalho and Alfred Szwarc, its point man for emissions and technology, began making regular pilgrimages to California, where they met with officials at different state government agencies and laid the groundwork for CARB’s decision in April.