B 2.2. How can the process of granting an environmental permit be described?
The grant of permits for any activities is incumbent upon the state environmental authority, except for certain cases for which the law provides otherwise, such as cases where the undertaking or its impacts exceed the limits of a certain state or the country itself (article 10 of Law no. 6,938/81). In the State of So Paulo, the countrys leading sugar-cane, ethanol and sugar producer, the implementation of a new plant with sugar-cane grinding capacity of 1,500,000 tons or higher must be preceded by an application for permit, to be filed together with the EIA-RIMA (as per State Department of the Environments Resolution no. 42/2006). In practice, all projects to be implemented in the state over the next few years have that kind of capacity. For sugar and ethanol production, the validity periods of Operation Permits for both cases are three 3 years. Before they expire an application for renewal must be filed and in order to have it approved the undertaker must demonstrate that it continues
