Word: jatropha
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Renewable energy, it turns out, does grow on trees. The fruit pods plucked from jatropha trees have seeds that produce clean-burning diesel fuel. But unlike corn and other biofuel sources, the jatropha doesn't have to compete with food crops for arable land. Even in the worst of soils, it grows like weeds. Sound too good to be true? That's why brothers Paul and Mark Dalton chose to name their Florida jatropha company My Dream Fuel...
...prison at Guantánamo or lift Bush's draconian restrictions on Cuban-American travel and remittances to Cuba - which mean a lot in a region where Monroe Doctrine is a dirty term. If Obama demonstrates that he's more interested in helping Haiti with green-energy projects like jatropha-seed oil than he is in making Bolivia eradicate more and more coca bushes, or more committed to steering U.S. aid toward micro-credit ventures for Mexican peasants than to building multibillion-dollar border walls to keep them out, it could go a long way toward making Latin America...
...more generally, East Africa, is a prime target for biofuel production because many, including Tanzania’s Ministry of Energy, would argue that there is plenty of land and labor to grow this global environmental solution. In addition, much of East Africa has a suitable climate for jatropha and sugarcane, crops that produce bio-diesel and ethanol. And the good news continues for Africa, because with foreign investment comes capital and the opportunity for job creation and poverty reduction. Farmers may gain access to credit and better technology for their own production, while Tanzania gains political leverage...
...Secondly, sugarcane and jatropha may be global environmental solutions, but these thirsty plants can threaten local water supplies. Jatropha, known as the “graveyard weed” is an invasive species that has never been studied on a large scale. It may produce a greener gas for others, but a monoculture of jatropha would be an environmental faux pas here...
...Down the line, say Branson and Imperium Renewables CEO John Plaza, biofuel producers are more interested in jatropha, a thorny plant that grows well on non-agricultural land in Latin America and Africa. They're also interested in farming algae, which Branson calls "the jet fuel of the future." Development of those feedstocks does look promising, but commercial mass production is still years off. And getting regulatory approval for the new jet fuel could take several years as well. So if biofuel ever takes off in aviation, it will likely be a decade before it has any noticeable impact...