Following three months of public demonstrations against plans for construction of a new nuclear power plant, Alberto Weretilneck, governor of the southern Argentine province of Río Negro, announced he was withdrawing his government’s approval of the project. “The project not only drew the expected opposition from environmental organizations, but also from thousands of Ríonegrinos, fundamentally young people,” Weretilneck wrote in an Aug. 25 open letter to Argentine Energy Minister Juan José Aranguren. The Río Negro project was one of two planned nuclear power station announced in May by Argentine President Mauricio Macri during a visit to China, which had agreed to finance 85%, or US$14 billion, of the cost of the two plants. The second project is scheduled for groundbreaking next year in the...
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Panama’s National Assembly voted on Aug. 10 to ban plastic bags nationwide, giving final approval to the first measure of its kind in Central America-—one that is expected to reduce plastics use in the country by up to 20%. The new law gives supermarkets, pharmacies and retailers 12 months to phase out single-use plastic bags, while wholesalers and warehouses will have 24 months. Once the grace period expires, stores still using plastic bags will be fined. The amount of the fine will be determined in the coming months by Panama’s Authority of Consumer Protection and Defense of Competition, but the law stipulates that any money seized in fines will go towards improving the country’s recycling program. The single-use bags will be replaced...
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If they’re built, half a dozen dams proposed for the upper reaches of the Amazon basin would affect the shape of rivers, fisheries, biodiversity and even human settlement patterns both upstream and downstream, scientists warn. A study published Aug. 23 in the journal PLOS One examined the impacts of two dams in Bolivia, Angosto del Bala on the Beni River (see “Battle lines form over plans to dam Beni River”—EcoAméricas, April ’17) and Rositas on the Grande River, and four dams in Peru: Pongo de Manseriche, on the Marañón; Pongo de Aguirre, on the Huallaga; Tambo 40, on the Ucayali; and Inambari, on the Inambari River (see “Peru’s new president faces difficult balancing act”—EcoAméricas, June ’11). The smallest, Rositas, would have 400 megawatts...
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Hoping to meet steadily rising electricity demand, a Colombian-based multinational plans in the coming months to begin building a US$800 million, 352-megawatt hydroelectric dam in a pristine canyon known for its high biodiversity and rare palms. Grupo Argos’s construction of the 400-foot-tall Porvenir II dam on the Samaná River in Colombia’s northwestern department of Antioquia is seen by the government as an important addition to the national grid. The project is expected to generate thousands of jobs, and comes at a time of steadily rising electricity demand. Colombia already relies heavily on hydroelectric dams, which account for 66% of its power generation. Opponents point to the spectacular beauty of the 750-meter-deep canyon through which the river flows. The...
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