The Demise of the Brazilian Ethanol Program: Environmental and Economic Shocks, 1985–1990 (January 2019)
Once the height of the Brazilian military dictatorship’s alternative energy agenda in the 1980s, the National Ethanol Program (Proálcool) was dismantled as a fuel replacement program in 1990 by the new democratically elected administration. This article traces the demise of the large-scale Brazilian ethanol program as the country transitioned from authoritarian rule to democratic governance between 1985 and 1990. Traditional analyses of the program’s collapse have focused on the economic crisis of the 1980s. However, few have noted how environmental factors undermined the program’s ability to supply the country with sufficient ethanol, exacerbating the economic challenges of the era. Using popular news sources as well as rainfall and car production data, I argue that untimely droughts in the dominant sugar-producing region of Ribeirão Preto, in the state of São Paulo, contributed to the program’s rapid abrogation. This situation compromised supply just as the democratic government’s new economic policy increased demand, after which ethanol shortages eroded public support. This approach spotlights the environment in a series of factors that undermined the large-scale alternative fuel transition with important implications for energy development today.
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