As usual, Congress is missing the point.

This week, Democrats are vowing to indefinitely stall the free trade agreement with Colombia to gain leverage on presidential economic power, and Republicans are lamenting what may be the end of the FTA era.

But more than anything, it's really the end of the oil age, and stimulation of biofuel production in South America's northern reaches is pivotal for U.S. economic health and regional influence.

Colombia's Biofuel Production Hurdles

In spring 2007, I sat just feet away from the Colombian Minister of Mines and Energy, Hernan Martinez as he addressed the Biofuels Americas conference in the coastal city of Cartagena.

The minister's take on the dual challenges of energy security and safety from Colombia's drug scourge opened my eyes.

As a country plagued by the narcotics trade, Colombia's agricultural industry is essentially held hostage by narcoterrorism.

As Minister Martinez spoke, he emphasized the importance of biofuel development in the face of the drug thugs who control much of the country's cultivable land.

Martinez did not qualify the enemy of Colombia's progress with a prefix. He called narcoterrorism simply "terrorismo."

For Colombians, al-Qaeda is not the most immediate threat. Though global trouble figures heavily in oil prices and each nation's subsequent desire for energy independence, the interplay between agriculture, jobs, fuel, and international standing is intricate in Colombia.

It is "especially important for our country," Martinez told us, to use biofuel development as a counterbalance to the "cultivation of illicit crops."

Martinez, a businessman who used to work with Exxon, was echoed in his comments by Jorge Cardenas, head of the Colombian industry group Fedebiocombustibles (biocombustibles means "biofuels" in Spanish).

Cardenas said that 300,000 people would eventually be employed directly and indirectly by the Colombian biofuel industry, many of them agricultural types whose livelihoods are currently too easily swayed towards the unsavory reliance on illicit substances cultivation.

Colombian Biofuels: Will They Reach the Energy Market?

Colombia has already put laws on the books that stipulate that Colombian gasoline must be 10% ethanol by 2009, heading up to 25% by 2025.

This will be sugar-based ethanol, coming from more than 30 cane-processing plants in 17 provinces.

Biodiesel options are also being considered, mainly from the African palm tree which grows well in Colombia's climate.

Unfortunately, the Office of the United States Trade Representative, the executive agency in charge of drafting and promoting the Colombia FTA and others, doesn't even include energy in its executive summary, let alone biofuels.

Even with 300,000 jobs at stake in a country that sorely needs them, the deadlock over the Colombia FTA may go down as yet another in a series of missed opportunities to use new energy sources to fuel more than just cars.

Regards,

Sam Hopkins, Green Chip International

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