On his trip, Bush announced a deal to share alternative-fuel-development technology with Brazil, the world's leading producer of ethanol.(George W. Bush)(Brief article)

On his trip, Bush announced a deal to share alternative-fuel-development technology with Brazil, the world's leading producer of ethanol. Brazil's ethanol, made from sugar cane, uses cropland far more efficiently than the corn-based ethanol produced in the U.S. But it's not clear that the U.S. should emulate the Brazilian model. Brazil's warm climate is far more suited to growing sugar cane, and ethanol's 40 percent share of the country's fuel market---which would cover only about 3 percent of the much larger U.S. fuel market---is largely the result of decades ...