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

PS. The Green Chip International portfolio is already positioned to take full advantage of the South American biofuels boom. The company in our portfolio is primed to sell sugar-based ethanol to other South American countries as well as to the U.S. To get access to the company and all of the other winning international renewables companies in the portfolio, click here.

Get the inside track on the most lucrative stock plays in today's scorching-hot alternative and renewable energy markets.

Sign up for the FREE Green Chip Review daily e-Letter from alternative energy expert Jeff Siegel.

I have read your article on biofuels and its expansion in South America. There is one major problem with biofuel -- we can't eat it. In the long run, it may turn out that with food shortages showing up world-wide, ethanol will not be the golden child we thought it would be. In US there are already problems with environmental fallout from pollution of water, gulf of Mexico, potential water shortages and most importantly, the use of food crops for fueling machines and instead of people. I love everything about alternative energy and vigorously support it but I am not investing in biofuels. And, even though it is not entirely the problem of biofuels I can't invest in products that ultamately cause food shortages. My investment philosopy is driven by what is good for all people and the earth and biofuel is looking like it will join fossil fuels as ultimately destructive.

Shelley Snow

I agree with S. Snow. Biofuels will almost always be bad news -- maybe not for investors (at least not in the beginning), but certainly in humanitarian, intra- and intergenerational equity ways.

I thought the whole point of green investing was to think it all through first, to consider the economic, environmental AND social justice aspects, to ensure the highest good of all concerned (including those who stand to suffer).

Wouldn't putting profits before food be considered just plain unwise?

Julie Johnston