Abstract
Today, Brazil has one of the most diverse energy systems in the world. The sugar-based ethanol industry plays a pivotal role in that achievement, yet scholars of energy development have focused little on ethanol. This article examines the history of the sugar-based ethanol industry from its beginning in the 1930s to the creation of the state-led program Proálcool (the National Ethanol Program) in 1975 and the ethanol-fueled car in 1979. This article demonstrates how federal and private actors connected nationalist goals of a modern, industrial Brazilian identity to ethanol in order to sustain the industry against the vagaries of the sugar market. Drawing from production data, the monthly sugar industry journalBrasil Açucareiro, newspapers, government funding applications for privately owned ethanol distilleries, and oral interviews, it highlights how the idea of a nationally developed technology and domestic industry etched a long-term place for the ethanol industry in the nation’s energy strategy.
Highlights
Hoje, o Brasil tem um dos sistemas de energia mais diversos no mundo
As automobiles transformed from playthings of the supremely wealthy in the early 1900s into products for modern transportation, the Brazilian state looked to ethanol to supplement petroleum demand in a country that had yet to find domestic oil reserves
German submarines off the Brazilian coast caused a 40 percent reduction in oil imports from predominantly American and British refineries between 1938 and 1944.12 In response, policymakers and military officials turned to alternative fuel sources to alleviate severe fuel rationing across the country
Summary
Brazil has one of the most diverse energy systems in the world. The sugar-based ethanol industry plays a pivotal role in that achievement, yet scholars of energy development have focused little on ethanol. As automobiles transformed from playthings of the supremely wealthy in the early 1900s into products for modern transportation, the Brazilian state looked to ethanol to supplement petroleum demand in a country that had yet to find domestic oil reserves These early efforts laid the foundation for the larger-scale state program, Proálcool, founded in 1975, as a means of addressing both the energy crisis and the country’s struggling sugar sector with private interests’ support. Brazil was a small petroleum consumer, and international oil prices remained low in the 1930s, the alcohol option lowered petroleum imports and repurposed underpriced potential sugar exports to improve the growing trade deficit.4 This link between ethanol and national interests would remain a key element in Brazilian ethanol marketing throughout the century.. The Brazilian government slowly diversified its energy market with the creation of the ethanol industry beginning in the 1930s This new industry was the child of incentivizing policies to push private sugar producers toward ethanol production under the IAA. “A queda da importação da gasolina e o emprego do alcool-motor como seu sucedaneo,” A Manhã, August 26, 1941; Agamenon Magalhäes, “Álcool-motor,” BA, August 1941, 38. 14 IAA, Anuario Açucareiro 18, 1953–56 (IAA: Rio de Janeiro), xiii
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
