« The Volt: An Electric Car That Could Change Everything | Home | Is The Bio-fuels Industry Ready To Cut The Government Apron Strings? »
Soros Says Ethanol Investments Hurt By Governments
By Mr Ethanol | June 5, 2007
Bloomberg:
Billionaire George Soros (photo) said investments in ethanol have been threatened by government regulation and trade barriers that curb demand for the crop-based fuel.
Environmental rules in Brazil, the world’s largest producer of ethanol from sugarcane, will prevent the country from reaching a potential 10-fold increase in output, said Soros, who last year became the main shareholder in an ethanol and sugar plant called Usina Monte Alegre in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state.
“I am a speculator in ethanol,” Soros said today during a seminar in Sao Paulo. “There are a lot of problems that we need to solve to make investment in ethanol really viable.”
Ethanol investment in Brazil has soared in recent years on expectations that demand will increase as nations such as China and Japan boost imports of alternative fuels. Ethanol prices in the U.S., where the fuel is made from corn, fell about 30 percent in the past year, and have dropped 27 percent in Brazil.
While production capacity can be expanded, trade barriers such as tariffs are limiting world demand in countries, Soros said. There’s room for Brazil to increase production for domestic consumption, though the “real opportunity” is to supply the world with the biofuel, he said.
To reduce the pace of global warming, the world’s nations need to use less coal and develop more alternative forms of energy, Soros said. He called on nations to implement a carbon tax to fund the development of alternative fuel sources to cut pollution.
Topics: BizOp, Ethanol, Investing, News |
Related Posts
- George Soros Is Investing 900 Million Dollars In Brazilian Ethanol
- Tight Credit Could Hurt Small Ethanol Companies
- Brazil Ethanol Industry Goes Green For The Money
- B.C. A Green Saudi Arabia?
- Evaluating New Investment Opportunities In The Ever-Changing Agricultural Market
- OPEC Solicits Industrial Nations To Ensure Future Demand For Oil
- Petrobras Creates Biofuel Subsidiary
- Is It Too Late To Stop The Ethanol Con Job?
- Market Crash: Opportunities For Those With Strong Stomachs
- Brazil’s Sugar/Ethanol Makers May Begin To Reduce New Mill Investing
New Way Of Making Easy Money Online