Sugarcane is now grown in Louisiana

“Research Boosts Sugarcane Business.” LSUAgCenter.com

http://www.lsuagcenter.com/en/communications/leads/Crops_Livestock/Research+Boosts+Sugarcane+B
usiness.htm 7/15/2005. Retrieved 7/10/08.
Sugarcane is a tropical crop trying to survive in Louisiana’s temperate climate. The ability to grow
sugarcane in Louisiana and increase sugar yields to levels attained in the tropics has largely been
the result of sugarcane breeding efforts. These efforts began in Louisiana in the early 1920s. The
LSU AgCenter released LCP 85-384 in 1993, which was a cooperative effort involving the U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service in Houma, La., and the American Sugar Cane
League. Since 1993, the LSU AgCenter team of scientists has released an additional four varieties – L
97-128, L 99-226, L 99-233 and L 01-283. These are part of the new arsenal of sugarcane varieties
growers are quickly adopting as they replace the once-dominant variety LCP 85-384.

United States can grow Sugarcane

James Jacobs, Ag Economist, What are the prospects for U.S. sugar co-ops?, USDA Rural
Development, http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/06
Sugarcane is a perennial tropical crop produced in four states: Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana and
Texas. Byproducts of sugarcane processing include molasses and bagasse, the fibrous material
that remains after sugar is pressed from the sugarcane. Bagasse is often burned as fuel to help
power the sugarcane mills.

Brazilian ethanol a lot better than the us ethanol

“Blaming biofuels for food-price rises distorts full picture.” The Irish Times. April 17, 2008. Pg. 15
In support of their argument, Brazilians point out that their principal biofuel - ethanol, on which the
country has placed a very large strategic bet - is made from sugar cane, which is the most
efficient method of production. The EU and US use far less efficient methods of biofuel
production - mainly from rapeseed in the EU and corn in the US.

Taxes break the best incentive to stop using gas

“Only carbon taxes can rekindle conservation.” The Toronto Star. March 9, 2007.
Economics 101 teaches that taxes and tax breaks are designed to encourage certain behaviours
and curb others. Registered retirement savings plans, for instance, are a tax break for the middle class, a
calculated government policy designed to encourage retirement saving rather than the immediate
gratification of spending. The most powerful instrument for dissuading consumers - individuals,
government and industry - from squandering finite energy resources is to make them more expensive.
Enter the carbon tax, the single most powerful tool for encouraging conservation of the planet's
finite coal, oil and natural gas resources, and for diminishing the role of CO2 emissions in
destroying the earth.

Tax incentives gave rise to ethanol

Jim Motavalli. “Solution or Distraction? An Ethanol Reality Check.” New York Times. May 14, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com. Retrieved 7/8/08
The elimination of lead as an octane booster in the 1970’s, and the creation of tax incentives for
blended gas by federal and state governments, gave rise to a new market for ethanol as an
additive, causing production to jump from 10 million gallons in 1979 to 175 million gallons in 1980.
For automakers, the big ethanol opportunity came in 1988, when Congress passed the Alternative Motor
Fuels Act. It provided credits for manufacturers that raised their corporate average fuel economy
numbers, known as CAFE, for producing gasoline vehicles that were also ethanol-ready. But with the
nation’s limited ethanol infrastructure, most of the vehicles ended up using gasoline.