The Macro-Environment for Liquid Biofuels in the Brazilian Science, Mass Media and Public Policies

The economic interest for renewable fuels production and consumption has increased considerably in the last decade. In the liquid biofuels field, the main interest is being driven to biodiesel and ethanol production and consumption. Therefore liquid biofuels industry has become a new opportunity for investment allocation. Biodiesel and ethanol production has risen worldwide, mainly in United States, Brazil, Germany, France, Italy and Spain (International Energy Agency [IEA], 2006). In Brazil, the ethanol production was strongly supported by public policies from the middle 1970’s to the early 1990’s, when the market for ethanol was liberalized. On the other hand, biodiesel has been strongly supported by public policies since Lula’s administration, remarkably by its inclusion in the National Plan of Agroenergy and National Program of Production and Use of Biodiesel PNPB. Regarding the government incentives for liquid biofuels production, the Brazilian ethanol production has increased significantly since the National Alcohol Program – PROALCOOL was launched to the present days. According to National Petroleum Agency – ANP (2001, 2010), the ethanol production increased from 10,7 billion liters in 2000 to more than 26,1 billion liters in 2009, an increasing rate superior to 140% in ten years. The biodiesel production, on the other side, went up and turned expressive in the last five years. In 2005 the Brazilian biodiesel industry comprised no more than eight biorefineries with a production capacity close to 85,3 million liters per year, but producing less than 0,75 million liters in that year. The scenario changed fast and five years later the biodiesel industry comprised 63 biorefineries online with a production capacity fifty times higher than in 2005 (National Petroleum Agency [ANP], 2006, 2010). The previous results show that the Brazilian liquid biofuels industry is attracting even more investments along the production chain, from farming to processing and distributing stages. As stated by Stiglitz (2001), “the information affects the decision making in every context ... and affects their [market participants] behavior”. So, decision makers may be interested in scan the macro-environment for liquid biofuels properly, supporting their strategic planning and decisions on a structured scanning process which can return not just information, but organized, categorized, and assessed one. The macro-environmental scanning is a first and important stage in the strategic planning process through which the decision makers would