Argentina and Uruguay are struggling to settle their contentious debate over two huge Uruguayan pulp-mill projects across the Uruguay River from the Argentine city of Gualeguaychú. Attending the inauguration of new Chilean President Michelle Bachelet in Santiago, Argentine President Néstor Kirchner and Uruguayan President Tabaré Vázquez told reporters on March 11 that they would organize a 90-day negotiating period to bridge their differences. A week later, however, it remained unclear when the talks would be held. Disagreement over the projects’ potential environmental impacts has fueled nationalistic fervor in both countries, testing relations between governments that share a center-left political bent. (See “Uruguayan pulp-mill plans worry Argentina”—EcoAméricas, April ’04 and “Pulp plans still straining Uruguayan-Argentine ties”—EcoAméricas, Oct. ’05.) At...
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Chile’s energy-regulation authority, the National Energy Commission (CNE), has approved rules designed to boost investment in alternative power projects. The regulations help implement legislation passed in 2004 that creates incentives aimed at bolstering the nation’s electric system with renewable power sources such as geothermal, wind, solar, biomass and small hydroelectric plants. That 2004 law, known as the Ley Corta, allows alternative-energy providers generating less than 20 megawatts (MW) to sell power into Chile’s energy grid without having to pay a transmission fee. Under the new regulations, which were approved in January and took effect immediately, alternative-energy systems with generating capacities under 9 MW would be bolstered in three ways. First, the regulations establish rules to facilitate the connection of these alternative-power...
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To speed their court case in Ecuador against Chevron-Texaco, Amazon Indians suing the U.S. oil giant over environmental contamination have proposed a reduction in the number of field inspections being carried out as part of the proceedings. Alejandro Ponce, one of the Indians’ attorneys, says his side will trim the number of inspections it has requested in order to accelerate the trial, which has been underway in the Superior Court of Nueva Loja, capital of Ecuador’s Sucumbíos province, since 2003. In their class-action suit, Amazon Indians accuse Texaco of releasing over 18 billion gallons of toxic drilling wastes into Ecuadorian Amazon rivers, wetlands and soil from 1964 to 1992. Chevron-Texaco contends that Texaco met its obligations in Ecuador by conducting an extensive...
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Brazil’s National Environmental Council (Conama) has approved development rules for sensitive lands that are not within national parks, biological reserves or other official protected areas. These lands, called Areas of Permanent Environmental Preservation (APPs), are undeveloped urban or rural property located along rivers and lakes, in river-headwaters areas or on mountaintops or slopes exceeding 45 degrees. The Conama regulations, contained in a Feb. 22 resolution slated to take effect by April 3, set federal standards that would supersede a hodgepodge of state-level rules regarding APPs. So far, these state rules have gone largely unenforced. In the absence of specific federal rules, APP lands often attract mining operations, real-estate projects and shantytowns. Under Conama’s resolution, social and economic activity in APPs must have...
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