Since the start of the year the price of sugar futures has almost doubled. This is welcome news for Brazil, the world’s largest producer of the stuff. The price spike is mainly explained by unfavourable weather—too little rain in India and too much in Brazil. India’s sugar production fell by almost half last year, turning the country from the second-biggest producer to the biggest importer. For Brazil’s big sugar companies the timing is perfect: the credit crunch set off a wave of consolidation in an industry that had been resistant to it. The firms that have survived now have more scale and lots of cash.

Read more in The Economist Brazil’s sugar mergers: Calorific value.

Louis Dreyfus, a French commodities giant, bought Santelisa Vale, a large processor of sugar cane, in April. Santelisa had expanded fast and taken on too much debt, a common mistake in an industry that had the highest levels of investment of any industry in Brazil before the crunch. Dreyfus, which already trades sugar, soyabeans and other Brazilian agricultural goods, wanted to bolster its position. At the other end of the spectrum is Copersucar, a giant co-operative that unites lots of small growers in São Paulo state.

The biggest of the lot is Cosan, which alone produces 2.5% of the world’s sugar. Last year it bought Exxon Mobil’s distribution and retailing business in Brazil to help it sell its ethanol. This year it bought Nova America, a smaller sugar company. Like many of Brazil’s big companies Cosan mixes family ownership with capital from BNDES, Brazil’s government-owned development bank. And like many other Brazilian giants, it has suffered a vicious feud within the founding family over who should run the business.

Rubens Ometto Silveira Mello fought the other members of his family for ten years in Brazil’s courts before winning control of Cosan. In 2007 he strengthened his grip by setting up Cosan Limited, a company with a dual share structure that accords some of Mr Mello’s shares ten times the voting weight of ordinary ones. To do this, he listed Cosan Limited on the New York Stock Exchange, since Brazil’s Novo Mercado, where Cosan was listed at the time, does not allow such arrangements.

Mr Mello, who is splendidly forthright, did not let the subsequent controversy bother him overly. “You’re pissing on sludge and you don’t know what’s under your feet,” he once told Dilma Rousseff, one of the front-runners for next year’s presidential election, during a discussion of the government’s energy policy. Marcos Lutz, an executive at Cosan, argues that the fuss about corporate governance is a distraction. The firm is professionally managed, he insists, and it was no surprise to shareholders that Mr Mello wanted to preserve an outsize say in the firm’s strategy.

Brazil’s sugar companies are lucky to have a natural hedge, in that when the sugar price is low many can produce ethanol instead. This can be consumed by motorists in the domestic market or exported for use in alcoholic drinks or other industries.

The market for ethanol has been growing at 17% a year, much faster than that for sugar, points out Luiz Pereira de Araújo of ETH Bioenergia, another fast-growing sugar firm. Such growth is likely to persist, thanks to increased sales of flex-fuel cars, which can run on petrol or ethanol. What is more, the Brazilian sugar-cane growers’ association is optimistic that Europe and America will eventually reduce tariffs on Brazilian ethanol. If that happens, Brazil’s growers, crushers and distillers will be even happier than they are already.

The organizers of the IndyCar Series has announced that the Brazilian city of São Paulo will stage the opening round of the 2010 season. “Scheduled for March 14, the event represents the return of Indy-style racing to Brazil thanks to the partnership between the São Paulo municipality, the Indy Racing League and TV Bandeirantes and BandSports,” says the press release. “São Paulo is already home to the Brazil Formula 1 Grand Prix staged at the Interlagos racetrack. Now the city concentrates two of the most important motorsports events worldwide.” Of course, the big difference from Formula 1 will be that the Indy cars run clean, since they use ethanol, from sugar cane, as opposed to fossil-based gasoline.

Meanwhile, the DomesticFuels blog reports that “the Iowa Corn Growers Association, the Iowa Corn Promotion Board and Pioneer have renewed their sponsorship for the 4th Annual [The Iowa Corn Indy 250], to be held on June 20, 2010. There were concerns that the race started specifically to highlight the United States ethanol industry might be discontinued after Brazil took over sponsorship of the Indy Car Series this year, but Iowa corn growers and Pioneer have agreed to sponsor the race for at least one more year.”

The ethanol industry is stepping up its advocacy seeking a change in the U.S. tax code that will give gasoline retailers a substantially larger incentive to install ethanol blender pumps, a change that the gasoline retailers are also supporting. For more, see EnergyWashington.com (subscription required).

Dow Jones reports that “a surprise announcement Tuesday night to extend a tax break for Brazilian auto makers likely means greater-than-expected car sales in the first quarter of 2010.” Brazil’s government plans to keep the Industrial Production Tax (known as IPI) down at 3% for flex-fuel vehicles with small 1.0 liter engines for another three months. “The ostensible reason for the continued tax break is the environmentally friendly nature of the flex-fuel vehicles, which can run on either gasoline or ethanol.”

The report goes on to say, “’the decision covers literally about half of Brazil’s car fleet, as the majority of new car sales are small-engine flex-fuel vehicles. Larger engine flex-fuel cars will not benefit” anymore from the lower tax rates or gasoline cars of any engine size. The Brazilian government also said that it will extend the IPI exemptions for new truck sales to stimulate swapping of older, more polluting vehicles by new, less polluting ones.

The Brazilian ethanol producers did not miss a chance to praise the announcement, noting in a press release that since the advent of flex fuel cars in 2003, the country has avoided 75 million tons of CO2.

The “Washington Insider” section of DTN (link requires subscription) reported yesterday that, “The Environmental Protection Agency continues to work against a Dec. 1 deadline for making a decision about whether to increase the maximum ethanol blend rate for non-flex-fuel vehicles from the current 10 percent level to as much as 15 percent, as requested by Growth Energy. EPA over the past few months has indicated that it would like additional time for studies to be completed regarding this issue, notably how a blend increase would affect cars with over 120,000 miles on their odometers.

According to the report, “some sources report that EPA is considering allowing up to a 15 percent maximum blend beginning with 2001 model cars. If so, that would equate to around 80 percent of all cars on the road today. It also is possible EPA could make its decision contingent on final results from ongoing studies due to be released next spring into early summer, meaning the agency would miss next week’s deadline. [While] other sources are saying if EPA chooses to announce the blend level will remain at 10 percent, Growth Energy or someone else likely would resubmit the request for an increase, thus starting the process all over. That, in turn, would allow enough time for some of the pending studies to be completed for EPA to use in its decision-making.”

Growth Energy, a new corn ethanol lobby group, put our a press release today calling on Congress to ease the installation of pumps that dispense mid- and high-level ethanol blends. According to a letter written to the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees, the organization says the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit, which should allow fuel vendors to recapture up to $50,000, or 50 percent, of the total cost of installing alternative fuel dispensing systems is being undermined by an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) interpretation that retailers are only allowed to take credit for a portion of the new pump – instead of the entire pump.

If the biofuels sector continues its expansion to meet the renewable fuels mandate, big oil companies and midstream businesses may have to change their practices, according to a report from Standard & Poor’s. The development of advanced biofuels could change conventional refinery requirements and distribution programs, and rack and terminal facilities may need more tanks and mixing equipment to allow for new blends, S&P analyst Mark Habib said. Different specifications for pipelines may also need to be developed or current ones retooled to serve regions where the alternative fuels would be produced, he added.

The Indian government is trying to get the industry to achieve the country’s 5% mandatory ethanol blending in gasoline target. Last week, the government set up a group made up of officials from the oil, renewable energy, food and consumer affairs ministries to ensure the 5% ethanol blending target, first introduced in November 2006, can be met. That’s right, the Indian biofuels target was set in three years ago!

A mandatory blend of 5% ethanol and optional blending of another 5% would not only make gasoline cheaper and environment-friendly, but also help the state sugarcane co-operatives to become viable business ventures, ethanol producers say. India’s oil marketers have floated buy tenders for 680 million liters of ethanol this year, but only around 40% of this has been secured, reports said. With drought affecting cane production in India, soaring sugar prices have capped ethanol supplies, pushing market prices for ethanol above the government-fixed price. Storage and supply logistics have also proved problematic.

In an interview with Reuters’ Tom Doggett, the heaf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said that the agency may not meet a December 1 deadline to decide whether to approve an industry request to boost the amount of ethanol that can be blended into gasoline.

Earlier this year, corn ethanol producers asked EPA to allow gasoline to contain up to 15 percent ethanol by volume, known as E15, from current 10% limit. Today, EPA’s Administrator Lisa Jackson said the agency may have to work past the December 1 deadline because it is still reviewing test results on how the higher blend rate would affect engines “across the board” — including cars, trucks, snowmobiles, motor boats and lawnmowers. “One of the issues is … lots of concern about how E15 plays over a range of engines,” Jackson said in a interview at EPA headquarters. “So having the data to be able to answer those questions once and for all is going to be, I think, key to making a decision that is rigorous and holds up.”

Thailand should emulate Brazil and use ethanol to cut its reliance on refined and imported fuels, according to the Petroleum Institute of Thailand. “Brazil was not affected by the oil crisis last year since the country uses mostly ethanol-based petrol that is blended with more than half ethanol content,” Ruengsak Thitisakul, PTIT’s deputy executive director for petroleum and alternative energy told the Bangkok Post newspaper .

Brazil’s focus on ethanol promotion was intended not only to cut oil imports but also to drive the domestic economy, according to Dr Ruengsak. In the first phase of development, Brazil subsidised ethanol prices heavily as the cost was twice the prevailing price of crude which was then $20 per barrel. Such a strategy has helped the it emerge as an economic power and develop faster than Thailand. “Thailand has the potential to follow in Brazil’s footsteps as the country is the world’s second largest sugar exporter after Brazil,” he added.

Este post esta inspirado en un tema que hice en ciertos foros de videojuegos, claro que voy a ampliar mucho mas mi opinión en esta ocasión. La música de la saga Final Fantasy es uno de los aspectos mas destacables, es admirable el trabajo que hizo el Señor Nobuo Uematsu con todas las entregas de la serie. Aunque Yasunori Mitsuda sea mi compositor favorito, Uematsu probablemente este en un muy cercano segundo lugar. Logro hacer cosas excelentes y ambientar increíblemente todos los juegos en los que trabajo. Al igual que en otras entradas, son sin orden en particular, todas me gustan aunque unas mas que otras XD

Main Theme de FFIV

Me encanta la influencia de la musica celta en este titulo, acentúa el aire medieval del contexto del juego, realmente me parece adecuada y sumamente emotiva considerando el juego del que viene. Y nooo no es de enya, Celtic Moon es un disco de arreglos hecho por Máire Breatnach, en esa version es mucho mas notoria la influencia celta.

You are not Alone de FFIX

Este tema en especial me gusta porque, a pesar de salirse un poco de los estándares de Uematsu y de la música de FFIX en general, logra tener una enorme carga emotiva y es sumamente conmovedor durante el contexto en el que se presenta. La mezcla de sonidos me pareció sumamente original, una de mis piezas favoritas de toda la serie

A fleeting Dream de FFX

Esta canción se me hace muy inspiradora y triste al mismo tiempo, me gusta particularmente la progresión de ritmo e intensidad que maneja. También, de nueva cuenta, el contexto ayuda bastante a ser memorable, pero no le quita nada de merito a esta pieza.

Dancing Mad de FFVI


La primer vez que tuve pelea contra kefka realmente estaba tan emocionada en el combate que no le puse la atencion debida a esta pieza, muchos dicen que el mejor tema de combate final lo tiene Sephiroth, pero ooohh que equivocados están, Dancing mad es una combinación de piezas con muchos altibajos y variantes, pero sin perder el hilo del tema original. La version de The black Mages es buenisima Parte 1 y Parte 2

What de FFV

No tengo idea porque me gusta tanto esta pieza, me parece particularmente cómica y ese sonido retro la hace completamente única. No creo que una versión con instrumentos reales pudiese tener el mismo efecto XD. Faris RLZ!!!

Aria Di Mezzo Carattere de FFVI

FFVI creo que es el mejor trabajo de Uematsu a la fecha, la escena de la opera no seria lo mismo sin esta cancion y la interaccion del jugador con la escena, es definitivamente uno de los mejores momentos en toda la serie, si no es que de los RPG’s en general. Ese video no es la versión original, pero tenia que ponerlo porque es buenisimo, viene en un Cd de arreglos que se llama Grand Finale.

Judgment Day de FFVII

Este tema creo que reune los enormes sentimientos de ansiedad y angustia (AKA emonesss )que rodean el juego, pero aun asi tiene un aire de determinacion. El sonido de FFVII me parecio excelente, casi todos los temas son dificiles de encasillar en algun genero o algo parecido.

Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec de FFVIII

Me recordó bastante a Dancing Mad, aunque un poco mas sencilla, creo que le va perfectamente a la apariencia de Edea. Los coros me parecen una muy buena adicion, la hacen sonar mucho mas escalofriante. Esta version es tambien de un disco de Arreglos

Four Hearts de FFV

Esta canción después del FFtheme es la que mas me recuerda la serie, es la que creo que transmite ese sentimiento de un viaje fantastico ( ) que evoca la aventura y cosas así. FFV para mi es una de las joyas menospreciadas de la serie.

Tina/Terra’s theme

Mi protagonista preferida de toda la serie, este tema debe de estar entre los mejores de el genero, es uno de los mejores “world map theme”, el sentimiento que provoca este tema, casi casi raya en lo sublime ^__^

BONUS TRACKS:

Final Fantasy Main Theme

Esta en todos los juegos y casi por ahi del final, casi casi te sabe a final de alguna pelicula epica XD

Prelude

Tambien esta en la gran mayoría de los juegos, una pieza bastante buena y que refleja mucho de lo que la serie representa.

Menciones especiales:
Eternal Wind de FFIII
Looking at the ocean de Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
Only a Plank Between One and Perdition de FFVIII
Final Fantasy Tactics Intro

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said he supports the biofuel industry’s push to boost the amount of ethanol that should be blended into gasoline from 10.2% to 15%. In an interview with Bloomberg, Vilsack said scientific studies have shown that an increased ethanol “blend wall” will not endanger car engines. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is set to decide on the request by December 1st.

Car engines with increased ethanol blends have a 14% increase in efficiency, said a study conducted by the University of Nebraska. The study concluded that the 85% ethanol admixture to gasoline (E85) makes engines more efficient than the 10% admixture (E10). The study aimed at determining the efficiency of car engines and the volume of gas emissions made by flex fuel vehicles that use the E10, E20, E30 and E85 biofuel admixtures. In addition to being more efficient and cost effective, the E85 admixture recorded the lowest level of pollutant gas emissions.

California’s Pearson Fuels has secured state and federal grants worth $10.9 million to build 55 ethanol gas stations in the state, according to The San Diego Business Journal. The company, which already owns more than one-third of such facilities in California, plans to set up its E85 pumps in areas with the greatest number of flex-fuel cars, said Pearson executive Mike Lewis.

O sávio é um desgraça eu falei que ia fazer um artigo de chocobos e vou:

começemos pela definição:

Chocobo é uma ave fictícia da série de video game Final Fantasy. Eles podem ser montados sendo usados como transporte.

Tipos:

• Chocobo normal – É o chocobo amarelo comum que aparece em todos os jogos da série principal com exceção do primeiro. Ele anda em terras e permite andar pelo mundo sem encontros de batalhas. Em alguns jogos ele pode andar em rios ou até curar.
•   Chocobo vermelho -  É o tipo mais agressivo de chocobo, tem ataques à longa distância e geralmente ataca em grupos.
• Chocobo preto – Em Final Fantasy VII, é preto e é capaz de andar sobre rios e águas rasas e subir montanhas. Em Final Fantasy IV e Final Fantasy V ele não anda, só pode voar, mas só pousa em florestas. Em Final Fantasy Tactics, pode voar tem alguns ataques. (Graficamente, ele é é roxo em Final Fantasy IV, V e Tactics pois a cor preta iria prejudicar a sua visibilidade).

Esses são os chocobos no final fantasy tactics, ta ai uma imagem bem definida para desenhos:

E aí comentem os posts.

FLw champz

A recent University of Nebraska study concluded that E85 that higher ethanol blends increases engine efficiency by improved energy conversion by up to 14 percent, compared to E10. The researchers found that “specific vehicles may test out differently based on engine design and settings, but increased efficiency from ethanol blends make sense, and for the fuel prices we looked at in the study, e85 was the best choice every time.”

At its bankruptcy filing last June, General Motors announced drastic cutbacks in its domestic and international operations but kept its South American subsidiary off the auction block. In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times at GM’s regional headquarters in Brazil, its regional executive Jaime Ardila explained why (hint: it’s ethanol related).

GM’s Brazil operation, the company’s third-largest after those in the U.S. and China, is the company’s “most valuable asset” in profitability and growth potential. Despite the global crisis and a 25% decline in U.S. sales that GM projects in 2009, GM-Brazil’s car and light-truck sales are expected to grow 8% this year. Moreover, Ardila said, the region offers a template for what GM should do “to get the business right.” One of these template ideas is the wide use of flex fuel cars.

Here’s what Ardila told the Los Angeles Times about Flex Fuel cars in Brazil and in the U.S.:

Excerpts from Los Angeles Times Interview

GM now equips every Brazilian car it makes with a flex-fuel engine that runs on a combination of ethanol and gasoline. But in the U.S. the emphasis is all on electric cars. Why? The U.S. doesn’t have the ethanol distribution network, something Brazil has been building since 1973, when the government mandated that all gas stations have pumps for ethanol. The technology exists in the U.S.: GM alone has 2 million cars running in the U.S. that use ethanol. The problem is, customers don’t have enough fuel stations to fill their tanks. There are only 2,000 stations nationwide that can distribute ethanol, mainly in the Midwest, and that’s nothing in a country that size.

So no future for ethanol in the U.S. car market? Eventually in the U.S. the technologies will coexist. One change will come with the launch of electric vehicles like our Chevrolet Volt electric model next year but also with the change in ethanol technology. Ethanol in Brazil is produced from sugar cane and in the U.S. from corn. But there are too many issues associated with extracting ethanol only from corn, such as the impact on food prices, the fact it uses too much water and that it is too expensive in relation to gasoline. We are working on producing ethanol from cellulose — from waste — and once we have this, I think ethanol in the U.S. and other countries will be propelled to a totally new level because it will be much cheaper.

Starting November, Petrojam, Jamaica’s sole refinery, will distribute only ethanol-blended gasoline. Energy Minister James Robertson says that producing only E10 (10% ethanol, 90% gasoline) will cut costs while helping the environment. Petrojam’s Kingston refinery began producing ethanol fuel last November and an all-island roll out of the fuel was promised this year.  The refinery is undergoing a $720-million renovation that is expected to increase capacity by 40 per cent. Its nominal capacity is 35,000 barrels a day with average production ranging up to 30,000 barrels.

Oil dependence and climate change are both issues that could increase international conflict and threaten an energy-hungry global economy, U.S. Senate Richard Lugar (R-IN) said today. Speaking in his home state of Indiana, Senator Lugar acknowledged that solutions to the two problems might often be linked, but warned that that there may be times when the US government must pursue a solution to one problem over the other.

“Some steps that might be beneficial for reducing oil dependence, such as powering new vehicles with electricity generated by conventional coal technologies, may aggravate greenhouse gas emissions,” Lugar said. Conversely, making carbon reduction the top priority could undermine industries like conventional biofuel production, he said, compromising efforts to displace oil.

Specifically on biofuels, the Senator criticized the indirect land use calculations by EPA and called on an immediate change to the subsidy policies that protect the corn ethanol industry. “We should transition out of the current static biofuels subsidy programs, which, in my judgment, will become more difficult to extend as the cost rises and therefore will become less effective at encouraging investment. Instead, we should embrace market assurances tied directly to the price of petroleum, creating more reliable incentives and adopting a more taxpayer friendly approach,” Sen. Lugar said among other proposals.

The senator was speaking at an energy security and economic security forum co-sponsored by the Lugar Center for Renewable Energy and the Pew Environmental Group. He is the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and a member and former chairman of the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee.

Going on a diet can be good for you. And maybe a gasoline “diet” of traditional fuel blended with increased levels of ethanol will be good for the environment and economy without hurting cars and small engines. Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are trying to find out because new ethanol blends could play a starring role in reducing petroleum use.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), along with Sens. Ben Cardin (D-MD), Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), introduced a bill, S.1666, that would require the Science Advisory Board of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to conduct a sweeping review before the agency could authorize ethanol blends in gasoline for conventional engines above the current 10 percent level. The proposed legislation says EPA could allow so-called mid-level blends in on-road and non-road engines only after the Science Advisory Board submits a report to the agency on the issue. The report would weigh issues including engine performance, emissions and the ability of the current gasoline distribution to handle the blends without widespread “misfueling” by consumers. EPA could only authorize introduction of the mid-level blends after formally responding to the recommendations in the report.

Meanwhile, Farm state senators are “may offer amendments to the fiscal 2010 U.S. EPA spending bill [H.R.2996] that would allow ethanol blends in gasoline above the current 10 percent limit,” according to Ben German’s report from E&E Daily (subscription required.) The reports quotes Sens. Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Charles Grassley (R-IA), two traditional defenders on the corn lobby, saying they are mulling legislations but did not commit to the effort that would block EPA funding if the agency did not move forward with allowing the 15 percent blends, a traditional Washington insider move. “We are discussing it, but I have not made up my mind,” Grassley told E&E yesterday. According to E&E, Senator Nelson “is growing impatient with EPA’s decision-making on the issue of blends above 10 percent. ‘I have been waiting for EPA to deal with this. It is something I must admit I am concerned about because they don’t seem to ever come to a conclusion,’ Nelson is quoted as saying. Separately, there are rumors are swirling that the corn ethanol lobby is trying to extend the 45 cents per gallon tax credit for ethanol and, apparently, even extending the 54 cents per gallon ethanol tariff.

Oil industry lobbyists are launching a preemptive attack to thwart introduction of a Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) when the Senate environment committee considers climate legislation this fall, conducting initial advocacy work to make sure that Chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA) doesn’t include an LCFS in her committee’s initial draft or accept a possible amendment Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) might offer to the bill, as he has done in previous climate legislation debates, say sources representing major and independent oil companies. For more, click here (subscription required).

Flex-fuel vehicles during August represented 94% of all automobiles sold in Brazil. That same percentage also was hit in June and represents the highest level ever reached. The estimate is based on data released by Brazil’s National Association of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (ANFAVEA) and compiled by the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA).

The data showed 221,469 flex-fuel vehicles sold during August 2009 compared with 200,396 flex-fuel vehicles sold during August 2008, or an increase of 10.5%. And while total automobile sales were down by 9.34% in August versus July, the drop in flex-fuel vehicle sales in that period was just 9.01%. Falling interest rates and greater consumer access to credit – as well as the advantages that consumers see in flex-fuel vehicles – have contributed to steady sales, UNICA noted.

According to the New York Times, Big Oil is peeved that the Obama administration has granted as much as $1.6 million in aid to help trade groups promote ethanol, natural gas, propane and biodiesel products.  Oil industry allies said the administration was engaging in favoritism and financing propaganda. ”These are for-profit companies, and basically the Department of Energy is underwriting their public-relations campaign,” one critic suggested. ”When is the last time the government gave a grant to the American Petroleum Institute to go out and tout the virtues of fossil fuel?” the New York Times source asked. ”Last time I checked, the National Mining Association hasn’t gotten anything to educate people about the wonders of coal,” the article went on. A spokeswoman for the Energy Department, said in an e-mail message that ”this grant [to the Alternative Fuel Trade Alliance] was competitively awarded to promote the expansion of biofuels and other clean-energy technologies.” The debate will surely continue…

In a move that is sure to please Brazil’s booming sector, the country’s fuels regulator (known as ANP) said it will allow ethanol producers to set up trading companies that can sell the fuel directly to distributors. Until now, the only way ethanol producers are allowed to sell ethanol fuel to consumers is to sell the fuel to distributors, which have historically been oil companies. As there are hundreds of mills to only a handful of wholesalers, producers often complain distributors are in a position to set the pace of sales and price levels.

In a move that could deeply change the country’s fuel market, ANP is allow trading companies to bring together ethanol producers to sell to distributors in hope to reducing price volatility.  “Our aim is to provide more stability to the ethanol sector… We want price volatility between (cane) harvest and interharvest to decline,” said Allan Kardec Duailibe, director at Brazil’s oil, gas and biofuels regulator agency (ANP) told Reuters.