Cultivating Energy, Reducing Poverty: Biofuel Development in an Indonesian Village

Abstract This article examines biofuel development in Indonesia initiated by the government through a presidential instruction issued in January 2006. Three layers of analysis are presented. One is related to the politics of oil during the Suharto era that shaped Indonesian energy policy for decades. The second layer looks at current political and economic situations in Indonesia, which has been much affected by a crisis of energy resulting from previous regimes. A biofuel initiative thus got underway to solve three major problems, namely, the energy crisis, high unemployment, and poverty. Finally, this paper observes how the biofuel policy impacts people in a village in West Java.