U.S.-Brazil Energy Partnership Offers Great Potential
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The U.S.-Brazil energy partnership has the potential to foster energy security, economic growth, and job creation—priorities for both countries. Reflecting this shared vision, President Barack Obama and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff last year launched the U.S.-Brazil Strategic Energy Dialogue (SED), a presidential-level mechanism to strengthen bilateral cooperation in this area.
We at the Brazil-U.S. Business Council applaud this effort towards a bold bilateral partnership in energy. We have been vigorously engaged in energy cooperation to deepen the commercial pillar of the U.S.-Brazil partnership, with an emphasis on trade and investment promotion.
In this context, we worked closely with the White House, the U.S. Department of Energy and other federal government agencies to launch the SED in August 2011. On that occasion, deputy secretary of energy Daniel Poneman met with private sector representatives in both São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and officially launched the dialogue in Brasília.
Further recognizing the importance of our energy partnership, this week, I moderated a panel featuring key U.S. and Brazilian government officials at the 13th edition of the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo’s Annual Energy Conference— Brazil’s largest energy-related event.
During the panel, the Brazilian Ministry of Mines and Energy, along with the U.S. Department of Energy, announced the next meeting of the SED in Washington, D.C. this coming October. The Ministry also announced that the private sector will be, for the first time, officially incorporated in the dialogue’s program of work – a longstanding request of the Brazil-U.S. Business Council and our partners in the U.S. and Brazil.
The Brazil-U.S. Business Council also launched this week its latest report: “The U.S.-Brazil Energy Partnership: Bolstering Security, Growth, and Job Creation.” In this report, we talk about the state of the partnership and offer recommendations for both countries to take advantage of the benefits it could bring.
The potential is there for this energy partnership to develop into one of the world’s greatest and bring real benefits for the citizens and economies of both countries. It’s great to see the governments and private sectors of both countries’ taking steps toward it.
