Milton Lautenschlager

We had the privilege to be given a presentation by the Sub-Secretary of Energy Milton Lautenshlager in which he informed us a great deal about Sao Paulo's energy plans for the future, especially on the renewable side. Overall his presentation was pretty good as he had no problems pointing out weaknesses of both the US and Brazil in terms of clean energy production. Furthermore he is strongly against fracking and says he hopes the US can proves as the example of why fracking should not be done in Brazil. He also told us that Sao Paulo has maximized their use of hydroelectric power and as such needs to use other means to produce renewable energy as he does not want to be reliant on Petrobras for energy. I believe that this is exactly what needs to happen in Brazil because if they become too heavily reliant on sugar cane for energy, than eventually they will have to decide whether producing food or energy is more important and either way the fallout from the decision made would be catastrophic. Thus the Brazilian policy of focusing on using Solar Energy to heat water and increasing their wind energy production is an excellent step to take in terms of moving towards renewable energy. I just wish the US would be as aggressive as Brazil is in their movement towards clean energy and away from fossil fuels and oil.