Brazil may move up its mandatory 5% biodiesel target to 2010 instead of 2013, according to Mines and Energy Minister Edison Lobao. The government might make a 3% biodiesel blend binding in July of this year, and may require a 4% blend next year. The minister has rejected concerns that this policy change could create a biodiesel supply problems in Brazil, noting the country currently has a 660 million gallon per year production capacity.

Brazil's Petrobras is forming a 50:50 joint venture with Mitsui & Co. Ltd. of Japan for investments in renewable energy. The new venture, called Participacoes Nippo Brasileira em Complexos Bioenergeticos SA, will provide ethanol for the Japanese market. In February, Petrobras said it would join with Mitsui and Brazilian builder Camargo Correa SA to form a joint venture to build the world's first ethanol-only pipeline. The pipeline would ship ethanol from sugarcane-growing areas in western Brazil to the Atlantic coast in Sao Paulo.

The president of the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association has proposed that the US establish a variable ethanol tariff linked to the price of oil, in lieu of ending the US ethanol tariff altogether. Proponents of a US tariff repeal say increased Brazilian imports will reduce the cost of fuel, relieve pressure on food prices and reduce US dependence on foreign oil. Opponents say repealing the tariff would amount to a subsidization of Brazilian ethanol by US taxpayers, and that Brazilian ethanol can already be imported to the US duty-free if it is processed in the Caribbean under the terms of the Caribbean Basin Initiative.