Nuclear India at 60

On August 14th and 15th, as Pakistan and India rang in their 60th birthdays and Asian markets began to tumble reacting to the credit woes originating in the United States, I was watching the local news in my hotel room in Jaipur, Rajasthan. My travels thus far, have taken me to New Delhi, Agra (Uttar Pradesh), Jaipur, and now Udaipur (cities in Rajasthan). Being in India during this time gave me the opportunity to observe the domestic debate over the nuclear deal.

For better or worse, Indian news has adopted the American model of filtering the day’s goings-on through political pundits and partisan figureheads that pepper the facts with spirited opinions. Troublingly, political opponents of the nuclear cooperative agreement, represented in large part by the Communist party, are against the deal because they fear India is conceding too much sovereignty by submitting to the U.S. enabling legislation, the Hyde Act. So proponents of the bill in India are trying their very best to ensure the public that no such concession is being made. This back-and-forth has produced some rather unsettling debates on TV talk shows and reassurances displayed on scrolling legends that read something like, “Prime Minister says India’s right to conduct nuclear tests preserved in agreement”. While this falls short of indicating that India intends to use the agreement for military purposes, it certainly betrays the lurking desire of India’s leadership to enhance its military prowess.

Demonstrating similar concerns, former U.N. weapons-inspector Hans-Blix characterized the nuclear deal as another step in the wrong direction and one that is informed by Cold-War tactics aimed at containing China. The Hindu reported that Blix also worries about the increased sale of Australian uranium as an additional destabilizing factor in the region.

The United Progressive Alliance, India’s ruling coalition of political parties, cites India’s ever-increasing energy needs as a central issue which the nuclear deal aims to address. The Communist-led opposition whose support is crucial to the deal’s survival, rejects this justification as contrived citing the high costs attendant with extracting nuclear energy. As reported by the New Statesman, the nuclear deal would satisfy 7% of India’s energy needs up from the 2% that nuclear fuel currently provides.

Does Energy Grow On Trees?: Jatropha Plant to Address India’s Fuel Needs

Today the WSJ reports that jatropha (pictured), a plant found throughout India, represents a major potential source of energy. The “ugly” shrub’s potential centers on the oil contained in its “golf-ball-size” fruit, which can be refined into biodiesel. Horticulturally-derived fuel, particularly from corn and sugarcane, is already an important source of alternative energy for many countries. Within the U.S., farm states like Iowa and Nebraska have experienced significant economic growth due to government incentives for ethanol production and Brazil has been particularly successful at reducing its oil imports by promoting the consumption of ethanol produced from sugarcane.

However, unlike corn and sugarcane, both of which are edible, jatropha has no value as a foodstuff. This means that jatropha used for biodiesel production will not make food more expensive or “divert resources away from crops that could be used to feed people”. The plant, which was formerly considered to be relatively useless beyond its ability to be grown as a hedge, keeping wild animals from entering farms, is also attractive due to its hardiness and ability to grow in difficult environments (“deserts, trash dumps, and rock piles”). It is also requires little water or fertilizer to thrive, both products which may be expensive or hard for poor farmers to come by. Other sources of biodiesel like corn and palm oil, require large amounts of water and land, jatropha is less picky.

The economics of jatropha biodiesel appear to be attracting the attention of some big players in the international energy industry. Some estimates place the per-barrel cost of refining jatropha at $43, half as much that of corn. With oil hovering at $70 per-barrel, this could make large-scale biodiesel production competitive without market-distorting government subsidies. BP recently invested $90 million in a joint venture with another British firm to develop jatropha biodiesel production in India as well as other countries.

Although some worry the flow of money into jatropha could suddenly dry up if the plant doesn’t live up to the hype and horticulturists caution that little is known about the plant due to its only new-found notoriety , some feel that jatropha oil could play a significant role in growing India’s biofuel capacity, something the Wire first profiled here.