When you listen to Brazil’s President Lula talk he is mesmerizing. Lula has pulled Brazil out of the brink of bankruptcy, self loathing and the dependence of foreign oil.

Lula was the first President to attend a Challenge Bibendum.  He took the opportunity to address the international media corp that waited an hour for him to arrive. The media was not disappointed.

Brazil has flex-fuel and tri-flex cars. Flex-fuel cars take either gasoline or ethanol. Tri-flex adds natural gas. Usually taxi cabs are tri-flex.

As expected Lula talked about Brazil being off the dependence of foreign oil. He talked about the advent of biodiesel and said that currently Brazil is B5 capable. That means that Brazil’s diesel cars can take diesel made 95% from oil, and 5% made from non-petroleum sources.

Lula expects to up the ante B12, 12% non-petroleum diesel, by the time the Olympics come to Brazil.

I didn’t expect Lula to address the Gulf oil gusher issue, but he did, and he was passionate and accurate. If you know that Lula was poor as a child, you’ll understand why he is passionate about Brazil not having the respect of other nations.

If you know that Brazil is the only country off the dependence of foreign oil since the oil crisis in the ’70s, you’ll understand why he thinks Brazil deserves more respect than they get. Brazil is supposed to be our ally, but we tax heavily any ethanol imports Brazil would like to sell us, in order to protect our corn farmers. On the other hand, we don’t tax our nemesis, Chavez, Venezuela’s oil as heavily, because we are addicted to it.

In his address Lula said that if this Gulf gusher had happened in the Rio Bay that the rest of the world would not be as nice to Brazil as they have been to the United States.

Lula addressed the gulf gusher, saying that he thought the only way to fix this gusher was to drill another well beside it and implode the gusher, something that will take months to do.

Lula also talked about Iran. As though needing to explain himself he talked about the fact that “you can’t be in negotiations with someone if you aren’t talking to them, if you aren’t showing them mutual respect”.

Obama:

* Invest $150 billion in alternative energy
* willing to do some offshore drilling, but against offshore & ANWR oil drilling
* Wants windfall profits tax on oil companies – Barack Obama and Joe Biden will require oil
companies to take a reasonable share of their record-breaking windfall profits and use it to
provide direct relief worth $500 for an individual and $1,000 for a married couple.
* Wants comprehensive Manhattan style project that “by 2020 we will have dramatic reductions in fossil fuels” – includes conservation, fuel efficiency, dramatic efforts to promote renewable energy biomass, alternative energies, drill more, refine more. (per Bill Richardson on CNN’s larry King)

McCain:

* Wants to get rid of all earmarks on the federal budget – Sarah Palin believes earmarks are okay as long as they are “transparent”, meaning the Congressperson’s name is on the earmark.
* Does not want windfall profits tax on oil companies
* Wants a “break” on federal gas tax
* Wants to lift offshore drilling ban, and drill in Alaska, and offshore drilling. does not want to drill in the Artic
* Advocates Nuclear power
* Promotes clean coal technology (with CO2 sequestration) and would give $2 billion for clean coal
“increasing domestic production, which Obama does not have, nor does Obama have Nuclear or coal in his portfolio” (per Nancy Pfotenhauer, Sr. McCain adviser, on CNN’s Larry King)

Below are snippets from Obama and McCain’s websites that outline their thoughts on automobiles and energy:

Cap-and-trade:

Obama:
Barack Obama and Joe Biden will use a portion of the revenue generated from the cap-and-trade permit auction to make investments that will reduce the dependence on foreign oil and accelerate deployment of low-carbon technologies. The investments will focus on three critical areas: 1) Basic Research; 2) Technology Demonstration and 3) Aggressive Commercial Deployment and Clean Market Creation.
They expect this to Create 5 Million New Jobs

McCain:
Emissions Permits Will Eventually Be Auctioned To Support The Development Of Advanced Technologies. A portion of the process of these auctions will be used to support a diversified portfolio of research and commercialization challenges, ranging from carbon capture and sequestration, to nuclear power, to battery development. Funds will also be used to provide financial backing for a Green Innovation Financing and Transfer (GIFT) to facilitate commercialization.

CAFE:

Obama:
Increase Fuel Economy Standards. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will increase fuel economy standards 4 percent per each year while protecting the financial future of domestic automakers. The plan, which will save nearly a half trillion gallons of gasoline and 6 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases, will establish concrete targets for annual fuel efficiency increases while giving industry the flexibility to meet those targets.

McCain:
John McCain will effectively enforce existing CAFE standards. John McCain has long supported CAFE standards — the mileage requirements that automobile manufacturers’ cars must meet. Some carmakers ignore these standards, pay a small financial penalty, and add it to the price of their cars. John McCain believes that the penalties for not following these standards must be effective enough so that all carmakers have an incentive to produce fuel-efficient vehicles.

Oil/gasoline:

Obama:
Barack Obama and Joe Biden will implement a strategy that will within 10 years allow us to reduce our consumption of oil by more than we currently import from the Middle East and Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela combined.
A “Use it or Lose It” Approach to Existing Leases. Oil companies have access to 68 million acres of land, over 40 million offshore, which they are not drilling on. Drilling in open areas could significantly increase domestic oil and gas production. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will require oil companies to diligently develop these leases or turn them over so that another company can develop them.

McCain:
But a broad federal moratorium stands in the way of energy exploration and production of another 18 billion barrels of oil. It is time for the federal government to lift these restrictions and to put our own reserves to use.
When politicians threaten to renegotiate NAFTA unilaterally, they threaten to disrupt relations between the United States and our most stable and friendly providers of oil.

Advanced technology for cars:

Obama:
Obama will invest in advanced vehicle technology with a specific focus on R & D in advanced battery technology. The increased federal funding will leverage private sector funds and support our domestic automakers to bring plug-in hybrids and other advanced vehicles to American consumers. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will also provide a $7,000 tax credit for the purchase of advanced technology vehicles as well as conversion tax credits. And to help create a market and show government leadership in purchasing highly efficient cars, Barack Obama and Joe Biden will commit to:
* Within one year of becoming President, the entire White House fleet will be converted to
plug-ins as security permits; and
* Half of all cars purchased by the federal government will be plug-in hybrids or all electric
by 2012
* Mandate All New Vehicles are Flexible Fuel Vehicles – Barack Obama and Joe Biden will work with Congress and auto companies to ensure that all new vehicles have FFV capability – the capability by the end of his first term in office.

McCain:
American automakers have committed to make 50 percent of their cars FFVs by 2012. John McCain calls on automakers to make a more rapid and complete switch to FFVs.
John McCain will issue A Clean Car Challenge. John McCain will issue a Clean Car Challenge to the automakers of America, in the form of a single and substantial tax credit based on the reduction of carbon emissions. For every automaker who can sell a zero-emissions car, John McCain will commit a $5,000 tax credit for each and every customer who buys that car. For other vehicles, whatever type they may be, the lower the carbon emissions, the higher the tax credit.

Tax Credits for auto manufacturers:

Obama:
Partner with Domestic Automakers. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will also provide $4 billion retooling tax credits and loan guarantees for domestic auto plants and parts manufacturers, so that the new fuel-efficient cars can be built in the U.S. by American workers rather than overseas.

McCain:
John McCain Will Propose A $300 Million Prize To Improve Battery Technology For Full Commercial Development Of Plug-In Hybrid And Full Electric Automobiles. A $300 million prize should be awarded for the development of a battery package that has the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars. That battery should deliver a power source at 30 percent of the current costs. At $300 million, the prize is one dollar for every man, woman and child in this country — and a small price to pay for breaking our dependence on oil.

Biofuels:

Obama:
Barack Obama and Joe Biden will require at least 60 billion gallons of advanced biofuels by 2030. They will invest federal resources, including tax incentives and government contracts into developing the most promising technologies and building the infrastructure to support them.

McCain:
The second generation of alcohol-based fuels like cellulosic ethanol, which won’t compete with food crops, are showing great potential.
* Today, Isolationist Tariffs And Wasteful Special Interest Subsidies Are Not Moving Us Toward An Energy Solution. We need to level the playing field and eliminate mandates, subsidies, tariffs and price supports that focus exclusively on corn-based ethanol and prevent the development of market-based solutions which would provide us with better options for our fuel needs.

Resources:
CNN and CNN’s Larry King show
CBS news
James Woolsey video interview on carlist.com
CNBC’s power lunch
barackobama.com
johnmccain.com

James Woolsey on earmarks

http://www.carlist.com/blog/?p=1068

James Woolsey on Obama vs. McCain

http://www.carlist.com/blog/?p=1071

James Woolsey on Carter vs. McCain

http://www.carlist.com/blog/?p=1070

James Woolsey on energy and politics

http://www.carlist.com/blog/?p=1066

Conclusion of John McCain & Joe Lieberman Q&A at auto show

http://www.carlist.com/blog/?p=861

More Q&A with McCain and Lieberman at the Detroit auto show

http://www.carlist.com/blog/?p=862

John McCain at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show

http://www.carlist.com/blog/?p=859

I asked Woolsey what the difference was between Obama’s energy proposals and McCain’s energy proposals.

Mr. R. James Woolsey is a Venture Partner and Senior Advisor with VantagePoint Venture Partners, Clean Tech, of San Bruno, California.

Mr. Woolsey is currently an Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Woolsey chairs the Strategic Advisory Group of the Washington, D.C. private equity fund, Paladin Capital Group; is a Senior Executive Advisor to the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton; and is of Counsel to the Washington, D.C. office of the Boston-based law firm, Goodwin Procter. Woolsey’s area of expertise is in alternative energy and security issues.

Woolsey has served four times in the federal government for a total of 12 years, holding Presidential appointments in two Democratic and two Republican administrations. He served as Director of Central Intelligence (1993-95), Ambassador and Chief Negotiator for the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty in Vienna (1989-91), Delegate at Large (on a part-time basis) to the Strategic Arms Reductions Talks (START) and the Defense and Space Talks in Geneva (1983-86), Under Secretary of the Navy (1977-79), and General Counsel to the U.S. Senate committee on Armed Services (1970-73). He was also an attorney with Shea & Gardner in Washington, D.C., specializing in commercial litigation and alternative dispute resolution (arbitration and mediation) He received an AB from Stanford University, MA from Oxford University – where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and LLB from Yale Law School.

Khalil Amine from Argonne had talked to me about the chemistry that Argonne had developed and licensed to Toda Kogyo from Japan. Toda Kogyo will produce the lithium-ion batteries in Ontario, Canada.

Agonne is funded by the DOE’s vehicle technologies program. The Department of Energy is funded with U.S. tax payer federal money.

My question to Woolsey was how could this happen? I’ve always thought that the DOE labs were working for the good of our country, financed with U.S. taxpayer money. Why would Argonne agree to license this chemistry to a Japanese company that will produce the batteries outside the United States?

See the video blog http://www.carlist.com/blog/?p=1062 for more information on this chemistry.

Mr. R. James Woolsey is a Venture Partner and Senior Advisor with VantagePoint Venture Partners, Clean Tech, of San Bruno, California.

Mr. Woolsey is currently an Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Woolsey chairs the Strategic Advisory Group of the Washington, D.C. private equity fund, Paladin Capital Group; is a Senior Executive Advisor to the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton; and is of Counsel to the Washington, D.C. office of the Boston-based law firm, Goodwin Procter. Woolsey’s area of expertise is in alternative energy and security issues.

Woolsey has served four times in the federal government for a total of 12 years, holding Presidential appointments in two Democratic and two Republican administrations. He served as Director of Central Intelligence (1993-95), Ambassador and Chief Negotiator for the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty in Vienna (1989-91), Delegate at Large (on a part-time basis) to the Strategic Arms Reductions Talks (START) and the Defense and Space Talks in Geneva (1983-86), Under Secretary of the Navy (1977-79), and General Counsel to the U.S. Senate committee on Armed Services (1970-73). He was also an attorney with Shea & Gardner in Washington, D.C., specializing in commercial litigation and alternative dispute resolution (arbitration and mediation) He received an AB from Stanford University, MA from Oxford University – where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and LLB from Yale Law School.

In September, 2008 Charlie Gibson interviewed Governor Sarah Palin. Gibson noted that Palin had requested money to study the mating habits of crabs and harbor-seals. This is the type of earmark that McCain has railed against. Palin said the specific requests had come through universities and other public entities and weren’t worked out by lobbyists behind closed doors.

Is that what McCain believes, or is he against earmarks all together?

What are telephone earmarks, and has Woolsey ever heard of them?

Mr. R. James Woolsey is a Venture Partner and Senior Advisor with VantagePoint Venture Partners, Clean Tech, of San Bruno, California.

Mr. Woolsey is currently an Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Woolsey chairs the Strategic Advisory Group of the Washington, D.C. private equity fund, Paladin Capital Group; is a Senior Executive Advisor to the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton; and is of Counsel to the Washington, D.C. office of the Boston-based law firm, Goodwin Procter. Woolsey’s area of expertise is in alternative energy and security issues.

Woolsey has served four times in the federal government for a total of 12 years, holding Presidential appointments in two Democratic and two Republican administrations. He served as Director of Central Intelligence (1993-95), Ambassador and Chief Negotiator for the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty in Vienna (1989-91), Delegate at Large (on a part-time basis) to the Strategic Arms Reductions Talks (START) and the Defense and Space Talks in Geneva (1983-86), Under Secretary of the Navy (1977-79), and General Counsel to the U.S. Senate committee on Armed Services (1970-73). He was also an attorney with Shea & Gardner in Washington, D.C., specializing in commercial litigation and alternative dispute resolution (arbitration and mediation) He received an AB from Stanford University, MA from Oxford University – where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and LLB from Yale Law School.

How much does it cost per mile to own and operate a vehicle? at the end of 2007? now, with the cost of gas rising.

When I worked for Chevron did people mention $100/barrel as a reality?

The Bush administration passed CAFE, but denied California their ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Why didn’t the EPA give California permission to regulate greenhouse gas emissions?

If California were really serious about decreasing gasoline usage what are some ideas they could implement?

Who is greener, Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama?

Watch McCain’s enthusiasm as he talks to Bob Nardelli, CEO, Chrysler, about hybrid pickups with displacement on demand (DOD) with towing.

Three of the GOP Presidential candidates toured the Detroit auto show, some answering questions.  Chrysler’s Jim Press and Frank Klegon showed former Governor Mike Huckabee and his wife, Janet around the Chrysler concept cars.