Though they filed an 11th-hour injunction request late last month to halt the project, federal prosecutors in Brazil say they face a “very uphill fight” to block construction of the mammoth R$19.4 billion (US$11.6 billion), 11,233-megawatt Belo Monte dam in the eastern Amazon region. If Belo Monte is completed as expected in 2015 or 2016, the hydropower complex on the Xingú River will rank third in installed capacity worldwide behind China’s 22,000-megawatt Three Gorges Dam and Brazil’s 14,600-megawatt Itaipú Dam, according to Brazil’s Mines and Energy Ministry. Many environmental advocates, who have fought the project for years on grounds it will cause substantial ecological damage in the vital rainforest region, acknowledge that government pressure to get Belo Monte up... [Log in to read more]