Sweet Fuel

Abstract

Abstract This book traces the ethanol industry from its inception under a state institution in 1933 through the height of government intervention under the national program during the dictatorship to its rebirth with the launch of the flexible fuel car in 2003. It argues that private businessmen, politicians, and rural workers leveraged nationalist interests in a domestic fuel option into one of the most advanced alternative energy initiatives in the world. The industry’s connection to the popular ethanol-fueled car connected the sugar-ethanol sector to Brazilian development goals of the twentieth century, but producers and government officials ignored the disproportionate environmental and costs associated with ethanol’s expansion. Focused on Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, the largest ethanol-producing region in the country, the book examines how producers’ continued dumping of vinasse, a byproduct of ethanol distillation, in local waterways connected the industry to extensive water pollution while exploitative labor laws drove the program’s rapid expansion over the course of the twentieth century. Rural communities’ efforts to hold producers accountable for these costs contrasts with national and international praise for the industry’s potential climate benefits. The book provides a full analysis of ethanol’s long-term development to reveal the historical complexities of one of today’s premier green energy industries.