The Mexican government has proposed measures that would boost the state’s role in the electricity market, squeeze out renewable energy producers and reverse green electric-power gains, experts and environmental activists say. A bill submitted to Congress in January by the populist government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador would put the state-owned, fossil-fuel dependent Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) first in line to dispatch electricity on the grid. The bill would overturn a 2014 law under which producers offering the cheapest energy—often renewable energy companies—may dispatch electricity first. Mexico produces about 75% of its electricity from fossil-fuel-fired power stations, hydroelectric dams and nuclear reactors and just 11% from renewable sources such as solar, wind and geothermal plants. The renewable portion could shrink under the new rules, experts say. “This is going to open the way for producing very dirty energy,” says Gustavo Ampugnani, executive director...
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Costa Rica’s Blue Flag program, an initiative to encourage best environmental practices, is broadening its scope with the creation of a new category designed to incentivize conservation and restoration of natural habitats. In February, the program launched its biodiversity category in honor of the UN’s ecosystem restoration decade, which begins this year. The program will award a blue flag to projects undertaken by companies, cities, or individuals that promote conservation of flora and fauna. The flags will be conferred with one to five stars depending on the rigorousness and ambition of the efforts. “We are trying to encourage restoration of the sustainable use of biodiversity through citizen participation,” says Mario Coto, technical director of the National System of Conservation Areas (Sinac). “Having a blue flag in Costa Rica formalizes the desire to benefit the environment.” Projects that could qualify for a blue flag in biodiversity range in size from simple...
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The Biden Administration this month removed the head of the U.S. section of the International Boundary and Water Commission (USIBWC), a key U.S.-Mexico border agency, and made an interim appointment to the post. Jayne Harkins, the first woman commissioner of the USIBWC, was replaced by Daniel Avila, the agency’s principal engineer, on a temporary basis. A former Nevada water official with experience in Colorado River issues, Harkins was appointed as the USIBWC chief in 2018 by then-President Donald Trump. Because the commissioner serves at the pleasure of the U.S. president, Harkins’ dismissal wasn’t a surprise. But since her predecessor, Obama-appointee Edward Drusina, lingered under the Trump Administration for more than a year, the swiftness of the change of guard was nevertheless noteworthy. A unique binational agency with Mexican and U.S. sections, the IBWC oversees boundary demarcation and water issues. Headquartered in El Paso, Texas, the USIBWC falls...
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Forest-protection bills that passed almost simultaneously in Buenos Aires and Asunción in December have extended an eastern Paraguayan deforestation ban and have heavily restricted development in Argentina on fire-damaged lands. The Paraguayan Congress in December approved a 10-year extension of a 2005 law that prohibits deforestation of any magnitude in the country’s eastern region. That region covers 39% of the country’s territory but contains 97% of its population and the vast bulk of its economic activity. “There are practically no remnants of forest there except for protected areas and the little that has been conserved on private land that was not cut before 2005,” says Mónica Centrón of Alter Vida, one of 60 Paraguayan advocacy groups that belong to a woodland-protection network called Coalition for the Forests. The forest cover that remains is still under pressure despite imposition of the ban in 2005. Some 977,000 hectares...
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