Part I of the book by Robert Zubin was a summary of the current situation and the consequences of our dependence on foreign oil. This part discusses some of the wrong turns we’ve taken in our energy policies and suggestions given by the author on how to overcome the problem. I found the author’s approaches to solving the problem to be intriguing, and intend to start there. It is my opinion that Chapter nine, “The Brazilian Experience,” is the best part of the book, although there is a wealth of information throughout.

Brazil is described as a microcosm of the world with a diverse, multiracial society with wealthy and poor. General Ernesto Geisel was inaugurated as President in 1974, and immediately began to attack the economic devastation caused from the cost of importing 80 percent of the oil needed by the country. He issued an edict that all gasoline had to contain 10% ethanol produced from sugar cane at a time when sugar prices were dropping. The government then paid for a pump dedicated to ethanol installed at every existing station, and domestic manufacturers began producing cars that could run on ethanol. OPEC cut oil prices, Brazil responded by subsidizing ethanol, and the International Monetary Fund pressured them into dropping their price supports. OPEC raised oil prices in 1999, and Volkswagen’s Brazilian division began producing flex-fuel vehicles. Brazilians could drive using gasoline, ethanol, or a mixture depending on what OPEC decided the price of oil should be. Brazil became an energy exporter by making ethanol from sugar cane and burning the woody “cane” to generate electricity.

Politicians and environmentalists in the U.S. have focused on conservation to solve our energy problems. One suggestion that comes up frequently is that we need to pay more for gasoline, which will force us to conserve. The author advocates that conservation cannot solve the increasing appetite for oil by the world’s consumers, especially with the industrialization of China and India. He also discussed the misguided policy of producing ethanol from corn to satisfy the farm lobby. (The Energy Collective wrote that Al Gore admitted he advocated subsidies for making ethanol from corn to get votes from farmers in his home state of Tennessee and because the first Presidential primary is held in Iowa where the farm lobby has great influence.)

Chapter six describes the justification for switching from gasoline to alcohols, and that methanol makes more sense than ethanol. Methanol can be manufactured from coal and natural gas as well as from biomass at prices that could complete with gasoline without subsidies. There is no way to transport natural gas from remote oil production locations, and the gas is flared. That natural gas could be collected and reacted in portable units to produce enough methanol to replace Mideast oil imports. The author suggests we follow the Brazilian model by requiring autos to be flex-fueled and that alcohol pumps be installed at all stations, and he points out that mileage with methanol will only be half that of an equivalent amount of gasoline. He discusses many advantages of an alcohol-fueled transportation system beyond breaking our oil dependence. One is that poor farmers of the world could be pulled out of poverty by giving them the opportunity to grow crops they could sell for use in alcohol production. (One disadvantage I don’t recall reading is that methanol is a fairly potent biohazard.)

There is much more to the book than what I’ve reviewed. For example, Mr. Zubrin dedicates Chapter ten to global warming. He observes the only good thing about the Kyoto treaty was that it didn’t apply to developing nations, which would have locked billions of people into perpetual poverty. Chapter eleven describes how we must expand our view on energy production to include nuclear power as the logical and efficient method of generating electricity. I highly recommend this book.