Entry #7 - Energy Policies

Today in class, we discussed the many energy policies that are proposed for Brazil and the U.S. in two articles we had to read before. Naturally, the policies for both countries have some similarities considering that at the end they have pretty much the same goal. However, there are some distinct differences due to the fact that these countries have different needs and resources. Though, it’s important to point out the fact that while the Brazil government owns all the oil found in their land, the oil in the U. S. is privatized. Consequently, the policies in both countries will have to be considerably different.

After looking at the graphs posted on the White House’s website, it seems like the U. S. government is more focused on increasing their oil production rather than investing more money on renewable energy. Also, the policies that do focus on renewable energy sources are intended for solar power mostly. Therefore, there should be policies that diversify the development of renewable energy technologies. On the other hand, Brazil, who already relies in more than 20% of renewable energy sources, does has the intention to investment more and more in this industry. Oil companies such as Petrobras are ahead of the pack because they use up their profits to develop new departments within their companies that focus mainly on developing new renewable energy technologies. That way, when the world has scarce fossil fuels, they will already have industries prepared to face the crisis. However, Brazil also has to diversify his renewable energy sources because they mostly rely on hydroelectricity when they have the potential to develop other renewable technologies. 

Going back to the policies regarding fossil fuels, in the U. S. since oil is privatized, the U. S. government has to resort on incentives, mostly economic, to encourage people to comply with the new policies. In contrast, the Brazilian government is one who has to take the bull by the horns when it comes to oil production policies. 

The U. S. is a country that imports almost everything. Nonetheless, by increasing their oil production they are seeking to lower their dependency on other countries. Moreover, and this something I haven’t thought of before, for long time now, the U. S. government has had the strategy to buy everyone else’s fossil fuels without using their own reserves so that when the rest runs out of oil, its prices will go up tremendously, and they will be able to sell it for ridiculous prices, and not only that, being one of the only countries with fossil fuels, they would have incredible power over other dependent countries. This is when it gets interesting, now that the world, in general, is developing more and more alternative energy technologies, when the time comes and we don’t have fossil fuels, governments would hopefully have developed technologies that don’t rely on fossil fuels anymore. Therefore, the U. S. government will have neither the results nor the power they had plan to have for so long.

Lastly, the remaining policies for both countries mainly talk about having energy codes to for industries to cut carbon pollution. Again, the U. S. government has to resort on incentives to do so. Furthermore, these policies also promote the expansion of production of other renewable energy sources such as corn and sugarcane for the U. S. and Brazil, respectively, which is something that will definitely help both governments diversify their renewable energy technologies.