by Rod Hughes

Some of the nation’s farmers are gearing up for sugar cane and palm oil production, anticipating the promised RECOPE refinery introduction of ethanol-laced gasoline and diesel. The newspaper La Nacion has reported that 10,000 hectares of cane have been seeded as well as another 10,000 in oul palm for renewable diesel fuel.

The plan, one of President Oscar Arias’s priorities for this year, has the backing of not only RECOPE but the ministries of Agriculture and of the Environment. It is part of Aria’s drive to have the country on a carbon balance to lead the way among third world nations in counteracting global warming.

RECOPE will work in the interim to prepare its storage tanks for the biofuel mixture. The oil palm production will be divided evenly between the Caribbean and Southern zones.

This will not be the first time that a mixture was tried here. The so-called gasohol appeared after the petrolium crisis of the 1970s but a myth circulated about engine damage caused by using the new fuel and it was discontinued. (Brazilian cars have circulated for decades on alcohol-laced fuel with no ill results.)