Boss Status: Milton Flavio Marques Lautenschlager

Dr. Milton Lautenschlager is the Sub-Secretary of Renewable Energy for the state of Sao Paulo. He has been in office since last fall and works with the Secretary of Energy, Jose Anibal, on the state's policies and actions for renewable energy. He presented the different facets that the state is focusing on and their previous successes and history.

Just as a quick statistic, in 2010:

• The world used 12.5% renewable energy.
• Brazil used 45.5% renewable energy.
• Sao Paulo used 55.5% renewable energy.

This statistic shows that Sao Paulo is at the forefront of the country's renewable energy production. The state is also the most successful of the country. "Sao Paulo is the locomotive that pulls Brasil forward," said Lautenschlager who was quoting a common proverb of the state. More than 55% of the country's wealth is located in Sao Paulo.

The Paulista Energy Plan is the main focus of the undersecretary at the moment. The basic idea of this plan is to raise the percentage of renewable energy used to 69% and reduce carbon emissions by 20%. These changes will mainly come from increased biofuels, wind, and solar. Hydroelectric power is so widely used in the state already that it is basically at its maximum capacity. Hydropower is also the largest source of renewable energy for the state, currently.

Developing biofuel technologies and infrastructure is one of the main components on the Paulista Energy Plan. Sao Paulo currently produces 18% of the world's sugar cane, which is half used for human consumption as food and the other half goes to fuel production. Ethanol is the main product made from sugar cane, but Lautenschlager and the state are looking to ramp up the production of bioelectricity and other fuels through the use of the waste products from ethanol, such as bagasse. They are also looking into developing the biodiesel sector. It is currently not very efficient and difficult to produce. Due to the fact that the public transportation systems are also slowly being switched over the flex fuel and ethanol hybrids, biodiesel is going to be in much higher demand.

As far as wind and solar power are concerned, there is no current infrastructure contributing to energy production in the state at the moment. The state has a great potential for both solar and wind production. Solar is due to its proximity to the equator. Wind, on the other hand, is a bit more complicated, but the state made it easy for society to gather this information by releasing the wind atlas that highlights the areas with the highest potentials for wind power generation.

As far as nonrenewable energy sources go, Brazil and the state of Sao Paulo have very large natural gas sectors. The large majority of this gas is from the Bolivia-Brazil pipeline. Lautenschlager was a point to highlight the fact that the state did not make the mistake that the US made in allowing fracking to disrupt the environment and its habitants. He said that the US set the example of what not to do considering fracking.