President Enrique Peña Nieto has promised to bring Mexico’s vehicle-emissions standards in line with those of his nation’s North American neighbors, ending years of foot-dragging by Mexican environmental authorities. The pledge came at the North American Leaders’ Summit in Ottawa on June 29, a yearly meeting of the heads of government of Mexico, the United States and Canada. In a statement, the three leaders promised to harmonize greenhouse-gas emissions standards by 2025 for cars and by 2027 for trucks and buses. The early target for aligning air pollutant emissions and ultra-low sulfur fuel standards for cars and trucks comes sooner: in 2018. By 2025, all three countries will phase in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s tougher Tier 3 air pollutant standards...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
Argentine President Mauricio Macri has decided to continue a highly controversial, US$4.7 billion project launched by his predecessor, Cristina Kirchner, to build two large hydroelectric dams in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz. The dams, to be located 65 kilometers (40 miles) apart on the Santa Cruz River, will together have an installed generating capacity of 1,740 megawatts, adding more than 5% to the country’s current installed power-generation capacity overall. Their reservoirs, however, will require the flooding of an estimated 47,000 hectares (181 sq miles) of land, a point that has drawn strong criticism from environmental organizations. The glacier-fed Santa Cruz River currently runs freely 385 kilometers (240 miles) west to east in Santa Cruz province, starting in Lake Argentina and emptying...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
Ecuador announced this month that oil reserves in a controversial concession partly underlying renowned Yasuní National Park are 83% higher than initially expected. Proven reserves in the Ecuadorian Amazon concession area called Block 43 amount to 1.673 billion barrels rather than the 920 million originally estimated, according to Ryder Scott, an oil and gas reservoir-evaluation consulting firm. The July 14 announcement has rekindled discussion of plans to build a new oil refinery in Ecuador. But the news also has drawn fire from opponents of oil development of Block 43, which also is known as ITT for its three oil fields—Ishpingo, Tambococha and Tiputini. Critics including indigenous and green groups say oil activity near and inside Yasuní endanger indigenous people and ecosystems in the...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
Another spill from Peru’s northern oil pipeline—the third major leak so far this year—has forced the head of the state-run oil company to resign and increased calls for a major overhaul of the aging structure. The spill of between 450 and 500 barrels was reported on June 24 in Barranca, a community of about 500 people on the Marañón River in the northeastern Loreto region. In press releases over the next few days, the state-run oil company Petroperú denied having polluted any body of water, although local residents said rain had washed oil into a palm swamp that drains into the river. The company also insisted that it had not been pumping oil through the pipeline since operation was suspended after...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
