We know that OPEC has had a monopoly control over the price of oil on the world market and we hope that the increase of more environmentally friendly biofuels will force that to change. However, David Zilberman, University of California, Berkeley, has created a model to measure how much impact we’re having.

I spoke to David here at the Farm Foundation’s Transition To A Bio Economy Conference. He wanted to show how ethanol in particular fits into the whole OPEC price situation. His model shows that by increasing the supply of fuel with ethanol you reduce OPEC’s ability to make money. He says that our ethanol production has raised the price of fuel in OPEC’s own countries while lowering it for everyone else around the world.

He says the promise of ethanol isn’t just it’s value to our environment but the ability to lessen OPEC’s grip on fuel prices.

You can listen to my interview with David here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/farm-foundation/ff-global-09-zilberman.mp3]

You can download the interview with this link (mp3).

You can find photos from the conference here:
Transition To A Bio Economy Conference: Global & Trade Issues Photo Album