Caribbean nations grapple with biofuel issues

— -- Omar Bros' hope for his country lies in an oily seed and a dying sugarcane industry.

Bros, an agronomist and civil engineer in the Dominican Republic, is betting on biofuels. And his country's effort is just part of a global awakening to renewable energy.

The Caribbean, which includes the Dominican Republic and Central America, offers examples of the uncertainty many regions face in the global energy grid. If those regions have the resources, they have to ask whether biofuels are worth the investment.

"The other question is, 'Do I want to produce ethanol for the domestic market, or do I want to export it?' " said Sergio Trindade, director of science and technology for International Fuel Technology in St. Louis and former assistant secretary general for the United Nations Science and Technology Committee. "It is a question whose answer depends on time."

In the United States, experts debate whether biofuel growth in the tropics will cut into profits for Midwest producers. Special free-trade agreements with those countries can make it less expensive to ship ethanol from there to the U.S. coasts.

"I don't think there is an answer right now," said Douglas Newman, who studies ethanol for the U.S. International Trade Commission. "As far as the Caribbean being a threat, it's been around for a long time, but it's never amounted to much and the demand has been there."

Investors from Brazil, Europe and United States are already buying into the biofuels industry in the Caribbean and Central American countries. A recent pact between Brazil and the United States helps some of these smaller countries get technology and know-how to make ethanol and biodiesel.

Growing, producing and using renewable fuels can help Caribbean countries become less dependent on imported oil, said Johanna Mendelson Forman, senior associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

Much of that region's oil is supplied by Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez is known for his animosity toward President Bush. Caribbean countries have been supportive of U.S. policies, and the United States doesn't want them to start siding with Chavez instead, Forman said.