Chavez changes his mind about ethanol

Washington Times:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez yesterday backed away from earlier attacks on an ethanol deal between the United States and Brazil in a move that was seen as a diplomatic setback for Cuban President Fidel Castro.
"We aren't against biofuels," Mr. Chavez said at a regional energy summit attended by Latin American heads of state in Venezuela. "In fact we want to import ethanol from Brazil."
The statement followed several sharp attacks on an ethanol deal concluded between the United States and Brazil during a visit to the region by President Bush last month.
Brazil is the world's leading producer of sugar cane-based ethanol while the United States is the world's biggest producer of corn-based ethanol.
Mr. Chavez has praised ethanol in the past as an environmentally sound companion to gasoline, even announcing plans in March to build 29 ethanol plants in his country. But since the March agreement, Mr. Chavez has argued that a Washington-backed ethanol push would damage food production in Latin America.
His change of heart followed a March newspaper editorial in which his ideological mentor, Mr. Castro, referred to the U.S. ethanol plans as "the sinister idea of converting food into fuel."
Reportedly facing stiff diplomatic criticism from Brazil, Mr. Chavez yesterday said he has problems only with corn-based ethanol made in the United States, not sugar-cane ethanol produced by Brazil.
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He must be concerned about the tortilla vote. But that does not explain Castro's nutty position since using cane for ethanol would boost the Cubans' main crop. It just goes to show that when it comes to economics communist are just not very smart.