Obama, Brazilian president to hold talks on energy partnership

President Obama and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff will have energy on their agenda when they meet at the White House on Monday.

The two presidents in March of 2011 announced a “Strategic Energy Dialogue” when Obama visited Brazil, one of several joint initiatives.

“The presidents will have the opportunity to follow up on progress made under the three presidential dialogues launched during President Obama’s March 2011 visit to Brazil — the Strategic Energy Dialogue, the Economic and Financial Dialogue and the Global Partnership Dialogue,” the White House said Sunday in a summary of the upcoming visit.

The joint energy work is focused on biofuels, oil-and-gas, renewable electricity, efficiency and nuclear energy.

The United States and Brazil are the top two ethanol producers in the world, according to the federal Energy Information Administration, and the two nations are also developing deepwater oil resources.

The work under the formal “Dialogue” includes joint efforts to advance bio-based fuels through joint research between the Energy Department and Petrobras, Brazil’s state-owned oil company.

“The joint research will focus on new techniques for generating bio-oils from biomass feedstocks. These bio-oils could then be combined with petroleum-based oils in a refinery to produce fuels that use less petroleum and generate fewer carbon emissions,” said Energy Department Deputy Secretary Daniel Poneman in a blog post after an inaugural meeting with Brazilian officials in August about the partnership.

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