Rusting and unmoving, the Agrifuels plant near New Iberia stands as a monument to the fraud that is ethanol. It is testimony to the folly of subsidy attempting to make the economically unfeasible into sound business. Agrifuels is one of three subsidized experiments from 30 years ago. Three decades and the business is still not profitable.

Agrifuels was a horse of a different color though. Its owner, a Canadian shell company was in turn owned by an Arab businessman last seen in the middle of Iran-Contra. In other words that plant was built to lift taxpayer dollars from Uncle Sam and stiff local contractors which is exactly what happened.

Today’s ethanol anecdotes aren’t much different … truth and facts are practically nonexistent in ethanol dialogue.

Bill Clinton stumped California several years back pitching an ethanol initiative on the ballot. He trumpeted the miracle of Brazil and their energy independence as proof enough to pass the ballot measure.

He was lying. The ethanol project, if approved (it wasn’t) would have generated enough alternative energy to power California cars for four hours. California uses more gasoline than any other country in the world except the United States. If any state should be drilling for oil it’s California, a true energy hog.

Al Gore touts Brazil in his error ridden propaganda film, also praising the ethanol story in Brazil. He’s lying too.

Films have been made, articles have been written almost romantically praising the great ethanol revolution that brought Brazil energy independence. There are several problems with that tale, not the least of which is the myth of energy independence. Even Saudi Arabia imports petroleum products. No one on the planet is truly energy independent.

But, what about the ethanol? There’s an old saying that you can accomplish practically anything with a little vision and an endless supply of cheap labor. In the Brazil ethanol industry, that vision is coupled with slave labor. Time and time again giant sugar plantations are found virtually imprisoning their help with exorbitant charges for room and board that leaves little chance for escape. That makes for a cheap harvest.

It is true that much of Brazil’s climate is friendly to sugar cane so large crops and potentially large ethanol byproducts are possible.

However, a close examination of Brazil’s ethanol production shows it ramping up smartly a couple of decades ago but production remaining flat ever since. An even closer examination shows production of another element rising sharply and rising as fast or in some cases faster than Brazilian demand.

That product is oil.

Brazil is not energy independent but it is comfortable for a variety of reasons and the main reason is the continued expansion of oil reserves under state owned PetroBras, the national oil company. Other reasons are the scarcity of automobiles (they have fewer cars than they have drivers; we have more cars than we have drivers) and an apparent desire not to drive very far.

The average Brazilian uses one-half gallon of buggy juice a week compared to three gallons a week for the average U.S. consumer. If we used on average just a half-gallon a week this country would be a net oil exporter. But even with slave labor, E-85 is no bargain in Brazil, costing much more than our gasoline.

There are several lessons to be learned from Brazil, the first of which is that oil, not ethanol, is the reason Brazil is practically energy self-sufficient.

The second lesson is what happens when you allow offshore drilling. PetroBras’ new Tupi field is a good example of what happens when we explore off our coasts.

Tupi lies below a large subsea salt shelf. Two things are virtually certain about oil below salt shelves – there is usually much more than seismic can reveal and its usually light sweet (low sulfur) crude that is easier to refine.

Tupi was estimated at first blush to hold 8 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe). That number, after exploratory wells, is now up to 30 boe. You can expect the same kind of thing to happen off America’s coast once the bans are lifted. Incidentally the first full production well is expected to go online this year, a scant two-and-a-half years after discovery of the field, not 10 years like liberals claim.