You need to take a step into a bigger world. Brazil did not get it's energy independence solely from drilling. They did the huge ITAIPU Dam which is considered one of the seven wonders of the modern world. They also use gasohol. Their regular gas is 10% gasohol. There other mixes are higher. We can do the same thing in the US with BIOdiesel and Switchgrass.

But I guess we are just the poor second world United States with second rate scientists and no political will. We can't even follow the example of another country, never mind actually come up with something new. We are pathetic. We deserve to be dethroned from our position of sole superpower due to our inability to adapt.

China will become the next super power within 30 years.

Brazil's Biofuel Strategy Pays Off as Gas Prices Soar

"PRADOPOLIS, Brazil -- Outside the cavernous Sao Martinho refinery, the air smells of molasses as a quarter-mile-long caravan of trucks piled high with sugar cane waits to unload cargo, signs that the world's largest sugar harvest is moving into high gear.

Such bumper sugar crops have often meant worldwide gluts, low prices and headaches for politicians in the more than 100 countries where sugar cane is grown, but not this year in Brazil. About half the cane brought here will be made into ethanol as part of a 30-year gamble to substitute fuels made from crops for imported oil.

As international oil prices soar, that bet has put Brazil at the forefront of a "biofuels" movement in which many countries view sugar cane, corn, soybeans, beets, cornstalks and native grasses as cleaner, money-saving substitutes for oil produced in politically unstable countries. Ethanol is higher in power-producing octane than most gasoline and can reduce tailpipe emissions of carbon monoxide and harmful particulates."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...061701440.html

ITAIPU Dam
"Peanuts"- a word often used from so called "economic experts" and representatives when it comes to Renewable Energies.

"Not sufficient", "unreliable", "not feasable", are common bias. ITAIPU shows they are wrong! Having more power than 10 nuclear power stations it supplies the second largest city on the planet with zero-emission electricity since 1984, still being extended until 1991. 26% of the electrical power consumption of Brazil and 78% of Paraguay are supplied by ITAIPU.

Located at the Brazilian-Paraguaian border and not far from the Argentinian border, the first step of the initiation was already in 1966 when the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Brazil and Paraguay signed a joint statement known as the "Act of Ygazu". By this a study and evaluation of the hydraulic resources of the Parana river (owned jointly by Brazil and Paraguay) followed.

On April, 26, 1973, the two gouvernments of the states signed a treaty "for the development of the hydroelectric resources of the Parana River" and founded "ITAIPU Binacional" (a cooperation with the legal, administrative and financial capacities and technical responsibility to plan, set up and operate the plant) in May, 17, 1974.
The construction work sarted in 1975, reaching its peak in 1978 with 30 000 people at work. Monthly on-site concrete production reached 338 000 m³. In total, 15 times the mass of concrete used for the "Eurotunnel" was supplied. The height of the dam reaches 196 m, its length 7.76 km. The lake created by this is 170 km long and contains 29 billion tons of water.

Unit 1 started to operate in December 1983. Electrical grid connection to Paraguay was established in March 1984, Brazil was connected 5 months later. In March 1991 the last unit (No.1 was put into operation.
The water intake of one single 715 MW Francis-turbine is 700 m³/s, its weighted efficiency is 93.8%.
Each year ITAPU generates 75 TWh of electricity and avoids 67.5 million tons of carbondioxide emissions - compared to coal power plants"
http://www.solar.coppe.ufrj.br/itaipu.html

http://ce.eng.usf.edu/pharos/wonders/Modern/itaipu.html

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1007/p05s01-woam.html

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Classic American liberal