Hydroaysen Keeping Public in the Dark, Say Chile Dam Critics

(Jan. 9, 2008) Endesa and Colbún, the companies behind the high-profile HidroAysén dam project in Patagonia, have failed to make good on promises to publicly share information about the possible environmental impacts of the venture, opponents of the controversial plan claimed this week.

(Unfortunately these enviromentlists have not learned from Endesa's last project on the Bio Bio River: Endesa Strategy & Tactics I – Revisiting the Ralco & Pangue Hydroelectric Projects on the Rio Bio Bio )

The two companies, working through a joint entity called HidroAysén, plan to build five massive dams in Region XI, an area of far southern Chile also known as Aysén. Slated for the area’s two largest rivers, the Baker and the Pascua, the dams would together generate some 2,750 MW of electricity – roughly equivalent to about 20 percent of the electricity Chile currently produces.

Before breaking ground on the estimated US$2.5 billion project, Spanish-Italian owned Endesa and Colbún, a Chilean company, must first gain approval from Chile’s National Environmental Commission. The companies are expected to file a requisite Environmental Impact Report (EIR) some time this year.

(Probably only a formality here. As when CELCO altered the scientific report presented to the Chilean Supreme Court, after its toxic pulp mill spill in Valdivia. "Although the Court recognised the ploy, it did not change its ruling." See: Revisiting the Valdivia CELCO industrial spill of 2005 )

In the meantime, HidroAysén ought to be forthcoming with the general public about the potential impacts the five dams would have on the pristine Patagonian region, insisted the project’s many critics.

(More forth coming than Barrick Gold Corporation's initial IES that left out the destruction of the glaciers? The farmers had to bring this to the attention of CONAMA. (See: Pascua Lama Gold Mine, a Threat to Sustainability )


Last October, HidroAysén General Manger Hernán Salazar agreed to do just that during a meeting attended by Energy Minister Marcelo Tokman, former Aysén Regional Governor Viviana Betancourt and members of the Chilean Patagonian Defense Council (CDCP), an umbrella organization of numerous groups and individuals opposing the controversial plan

But according to the CDCP, HidroAysén has not lived up to its promise. In recent months the company hosted a number of “open houses” during which officials offered slide shows focused primarily on the benefits of the five-dam project. The endeavor, the company claims, will provide jobs, bring down energy costs, and go a long way toward helping Chile meet its growing appetite for electricity. Open house visitors were also welcome to browse several volumes of technical information related to the project and its impacts.

Access to the voluminous materials, however, is severely limited, meaning that in practical terms, it’s still being withheld from the public, claimed the CDCP. “The information is available in the open houses, but it’s so extensive and so difficult to access. You can’t take it out, or photocopy it,” the organization’s executive secretary, Patricio Rodrigo, told the Patagonia Times.

(This is a pretty hydroelectric industry typical tactic. See: Australian dam proponents try an end run around environmental impact statement )

The CDCP recently asked HidroAysén to make the information available electronically, so that people might “study it calmly,” explained Rodrigo. “The company denied the request. They said ‘No, go to the open houses.’ But without photocopying or taking the material out of the office. And we’re talking about 15 volumes that are each 5,000 pages. So it’s not possible to go over (the information) or even really look at it.”

“The Defense Council of Chilean Patagonia condemns this move and considers it an open contradiction to the type of transparency and citizen participation that HidroAysén promised. (Naive? See: Endesa Strategy & Tactics I – Revisiting the Ralco & Pangue Hydroelectric Projects on the Rio Bio Bio ) This just goes to show that the open houses… are no more than a dressed up marketing strategy designed to sell the project,” the CDCP stated in a public declaration released this week.

Here is the full article.

Legislators angered by Chile Intelligence Agency monitoring of environmental organizations - investigation demanded

CHILE LEGISLATORS ANGERED BY INTELLIGENCE MONITORING OF GREEN NGOs

“Actions Like This Cannot Be Allowed To Happen Here”

(Dec. 14, 2007) Party for Democracy (PPD) Dep. Guido Girardi said Thursday that the Chamber of Deputies’ Natural Resources Commission will meet next Tuesday to discuss reports that Chile’s National Intelligence Agency (ANI) has increased its monitoring of environmental NGOs. This news comes as Chilean environmentalists and politicians continue to express their concern over the Agency’s increasingly draconian tactics.

According to a report published last week by La Tercera, the ANI is gathering information on how environmental NGOs function, who their principal members are, who provides them with funding, and how they respond to environmental issues nationwide. At least three ANI employees, including a former official from Chile’s National Environmental Commission (CONAMA), are known to be working full time on these issues. (ST, Dec 10.)

The La Tercera report specified that campaigns against the controversial Aysen dam project, the transnational Pascua Lama mining project, and Celulosa Arauco’s (CELCO) waste duct are receiving the greatest attention by the state’s intelligence officers.

“On one hand, this news surprises me. On the other hand, it really does not. There are economic powers that clearly do not want pro-environmental organizations to thrive,” Girardi told the Santiago Times. “For those economic organizations, the environmental movement does represent a threat to national security.”

(NGO's were at the top of Barrick Gold Corporation's agenda at the 2007 Davos Conference in Switzerland, a conference frequented by Michele Bachelet: Barrick Gold Chairman, Peter Munk complains rogue Environmental NGOs are Destroying the Mining Industry )

“In next Tuesday’s meeting of the Chamber of Deputies’ Natural Resources Commission, I am going to introduce a motion to respond to this news. It is very probable that we demand that the Interior Ministry respond to these report. We need answers from them,” he said.

“In the Commission, we usually share the same thinking, although we come from different political parties. We are all concerned about the environment. In a situation like this, when there is something as extreme as espionage, I do not think that anyone in the Commission is going to vote against taking action…we recognize that actions like this (espionage) cannot be allowed to happen in Chile.”

Independent Democratic Union (UDI) Dep. Alejandro García-Huidobro, another member of the Natural Resources Commission, echoed Girardi’s comments.

“Countries definitely need to have their intelligence services. But, this does not mean that they can interfere in the work of NGOs which clearly have the right to defend the environment,” he said. “This is a very shameful situation. We have made such progress in our democracy and freedom of expression, and I think that it is a shame that this is happening. Intelligence should be more so focused on combating problems like delinquency.”

Environmental activists reported this week that ANI’s methods include espionage and infiltration (ST, Dec. 10, 11). Activists are particularly upset by CONAMA’s support of the ANI investigations.

(Not unexpected, as the Chilean government's lack of concern for the environment and ardent support of the foreign owned extraction industry is notorious: Chile's Government fines itself for polluting the environment )

Greenpeace Chile director Rodrigo Hererra commented on CONAMA’s position Wednesday. “The report about ANI has very serious implications for freedom of expression in the environmentalist movement,” he told the Santiago Times. “I absolutely reject CONAMA’s support of their investigation. It is clear that CONAMA has no idea what methods the ANI is using.”

Lucio Cuenca, director of the Latin American Observatory on Environmental Conflicts (Olca), said his organization – which campaigns against the Pascua Lama gold mine among other things – has been monitored by ANI since 2005 and has had negative experience with ANI’s questionable investigation tactics.

“It is legitimate within a democracy for the government to gather information on organizations,” he said. “It is not legitimate to deny people their liberty, intimidate them, and intervene in their civic participation as ANI has done.”

Cuenca said he was dissatisfied, though not entirely surprised, that CONAMA supports ANI’s investigation. He called on CONAMA to better fulfill its role as a facilitator of public opinion in projects affecting the environment. (ST, Dec. 13)

In spite of repeated phone calls and e-mails from the Santiago Times, the ANI declined to comment on these allegations and delayed a requested interview with ANI director Gustavo Villalobos until sometime next year.

Here is the full article.

Canadian pensioners to pave Patagonia – Canada retirees secure comfortable future by exploiting Chilean lands, environment and people.

Canadian pensioners to pave Patagonia

[December 6, 2007] Douglas Tompkins, the acclaimed adventurer and multimillionaire clothing magnate, flew his private plane over British Columbia in 1992 and he was inspired–but not by B.C.'s beauty. Tompkins, the American founder of the North Face and Esprit brands, was so horrified by the province's clearcuts that he immediately exited the business world. He then flew to the other end of the planet and started to buy up large blocks of temperate rainforest in a region that still resembles British Columbia before the arrival of the Europeans.

Tompkins's first acquisition, a $50-million, 714,000-acre piece of pristine forest, cut Chile in two: industry to the north and nature to the south. Now called Pumalin Park, Tompkins's first nature reserve is an environmental roadblock that extends from southern Chile's eastern border with Argentina all the way west to the Pacific Ocean. There is no major road from Chile's central lake region to Patagonia–only a circuitous network of frequently washed-out gravel roads and an assortment of unreliable ferries.

Tourists who brave it into northern Patagonia stand in awe when confronted with the region's globally unique flora and fauna. Highlights include massive groves of alerce trees ( Fitzroya cupressoides , often referred to as the "redwoods of the Andes"), a tiny deer called the pudú, and the Rio Futaleufú, considered by many to be the most beautiful river on earth.

Tompkins's dream of conserving Patagonia's prodigious resources may soon be crushed. A Chilean utility, HQI Transelec Chile S.A., owned by a consortium led by Canada's Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (which includes major Canadian pension fund managers), is hoping to receive Chilean government approval next year to industrialize Patagonia for the first time.

(See what is planned for Patagonia, Chile: Rio Puelo dam, one of twenty-two planned for Southern Chile - Argentina fights back , The Looting of Patagonia Has Begun, Say Chile Dam Opponents , Chile's 21st Century Gold Rush , Xstrata & Transelec Negotiate Cuervo River Dam Project , Endesa SA plans 5 additional dams to coincide with the HydroAysen Project )

According to a news release issued on June 16, 2006, the Brookfield consortium's investors include a B.C. government-owned Crown corporation that invests money on behalf of every nurse, postsecondary instructor, and municipal and provincial employee, as well as firefighters, police officers, transit operators, and ICBC and BC Hydro workers. The pension funds of most public-sector workers in this province are backing a company that is–in the words of its critics–involved in the destruction of one of the planet's greatest environmental treasures.

The Brookfield consortium intends to build the world's longest (2,000 kilometres) high-tension power line from a series of as-yet-unapproved dams in Patagonia to Chile's central and northern industrial centres. Hundreds of transmission towers will be built alongside a superhighway that will open up Patagonia to the encroachment of industry for the first time.

"The dams are a big threat, but the power line and roads will do the most damage," Tompkins said during an interview earlier this year in Patagonia. "The Canadian power line is going to industrialize Patagonia, and it is going to discount the one economic card the region has to play, which is the tourism."

It is no secret that Chile's only major electrical transmission company, Transelec, was purchased by the Brookfield consortium last year for a sticker price of $1.55 billion. But do Canadian pensioners know that more than $500 million worth of pension funds were spent on the venture?

(Transelec was originally owned by Endesa: Background: Endesa Chile sells Transelec to Hydro Quebec International Inc. for US$ 1.076 billion )

Critics of the Canadian consortium's decision to buy Trans­elec claim that the Toronto-based Brookfield (formerly named Brascan Corp.) and its two partners, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, can look forward to a prolonged and expensive legal battle against one of the most powerful environmental alliances in world history.

EFFORTS TO LEARN MORE about how and why the Brookfield consortium chose to buy a company with such a controversial and expensive plan resulted in even more questions.

Chris Trumpy, the bcIMC's chairman of the board at the time of purchase, told the Georgia Straight in an e-mail that he wasn't even involved in the decision. Under the Public Sector Pension Plan Act, Trumpy and other board members are prohibited from participating in investment decisions made by the CEO and chief investment officer, Doug Pearce.

"The investment in Transelec did not come to the board or to me in my role as chair," Trumpy wrote.

According to bcIMC spokesperson Gwen-Ann Chittenden, bcIMC owns 26 percent of Transelec and has one seat on the nine-member board.

A representative for the other pension-fund manager in the deal, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, refused to comment. May Chong, a CPP spokesperson, admitted that the Canada Pension Plan Review Board (which invests Canadian pension funds not used to pay current dues) owns 27 percent of Transelec, but she directed any specific questions about the Patagonian power scheme to Brookfield, the consortium's lead in the investment.

Repeated attempts to reach Bruce Flatt, Brookfield's 42-year-old CEO, resulted in a telephone interview with the company's media chief, Denis Couture.

"We've got risk-management measures in place and we work closely with our partners to make sure all standards are met," Couture said. "We never do things that are not welcome by the local populations. If we can't do it after the review process…we won't."

Juan Pablo Orrego, a prominent Chilean environmentalist, disagrees.

"This kind of project could never be implemented in a full-fledged democracy," he said. "Our country is still under a constitutional, political, and financial checkmate to democracy which was put in place during the military dictatorship and empowers the private sector." Orrego, who is leading the domestic fight to save Patagonia with the group Ecosistemas, says that industrial megaprojects in Chile do not operate under the same laws of transparency that exist in Canada.

(Sadly, Orrego is mistaken here: Thirst for Energy Fuels Controversial Hydroelectric Power Project in Quebec, Canada )

Couture defended Brookfield's industrial motives in Chile. "Nobody can accuse Brookfield of going to a developing country to take advantage of it," he said. "Isn't it preferable to have a Brookfield-sponsored initiative in Chile instead of something taken care of by a company from Russia or China?"

(Couture is correct. If Chile is to be raped it is preferable that Brookfield Consortium does the raping: Chinese 3.5 Billion “Hydroelectric – Iron Mine” complex slated for Africa’s Gabon National Park , China leaders petitioned on Burma dam projects )

Like Orrego, Tompkins was quick to react to Couture's assertions. Tompkins believes the preservation of Patagonia represents one of the last stands for the planet's biodiversity and that Brookfield is the kind of profit-driven entity that is pushing the planet to the point of ecological extinction.

"What we have here are insensitive businesspeople who work at growth for growth's sake…no energy-conservation consciousness or energy-efficiency efforts," he said in a recent interview.

(The evidence supports Tompkins: Lighting Up Europe - Are Enel, E.ON & Endesa serious about fighting global warming? , Green Power Pioneer, ENDESA granted permission to build two 430 MW Gas Turbine Plants in France , Endesa expands Carbon Footprint in Latin America - Inefficient and Cheap Open Cycle Gas Turbines to be installed in Peru )

Tompkins's point has been echoed and amplified by the New York–based Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group that has retained Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a lawyer. The NRDC has been lobbying the Chilean government to take simple steps toward energy efficiency. These include a requirement for insulation in Chilean homes and increased efficiency standards for Chilean industries.

"Chile needs to use the power they already have in a more efficient way before they consider destroying one of the world's last truly pristine places," said Hamlet Paoletti an NRDC spokesperson.

However, Bernardo Matte, a senior member of Chile's powerful Matte family and a minority investor in the power scheme, suggests that foreign environmentalists like Tompkins and Paoletti are hypocrites.

"How can you try to block us from building a hydroelectric power line when all of the power of Manhattan comes thousands of miles from Canada?" he asked members of the NRDC on a recent visit to New York.

(Sadly, Matte, an extraction industry mogul, ( Mining Giants Account For Fifty Percent Of All Corporate Profits in Chile ) is correct here: Cree leaders surrender the Rupert River to Hydro Quebec . However, who "us" is isn't the people of the Aysen region. It is the Matte Consortium that is being blocked.)

But one thing that Matte may not have considered during his visit to the U.S., the world's most wasteful consumer of electricity, is that things are changing. On the East Coast, the State of New York is well on its way to a greener future with a billion-dollar investment in wind and tide technologies. On the West Coast, Californians now use almost half the kilowatt-hours of electricity used annually by the average American, due in large part to energy-efficiency measures.

DESPITE EARLY SIGNS that the new Chilean government of President Michelle Bachelet would be open to the development of renewable-energy sources and the promotion of energy efficiency, it appears that Bachelet's young regime is ready to give Brookfield a green light. Criticized for not taking the necessary steps to resolve Chile's ongoing energy crisis, Bachelet's administration recently declared the Patagonian power line a project of national importance.

Due to a traditional overreliance on hydroelectric power, Chile's energy supply has been always been overtaxed in times of drought. But in the late '90s, Chilean industry was boosted by new pipelines bringing natural gas in from neighbouring Argentina. Gas-rich Argentina, however, soon suffered the greatest economic crisis in its history, and natural-gas exports to Chile were drastically curtailed. Unable to look north to gas-rich Bolivia (Bolivia still resents Chile for taking its only access to the Pacific Ocean in the War of 1879), Chile's current energy crisis was born.

(Also, by the fact that the foriegn owned mining industry in Chile consumes most of the electrical power. See the statistics here: Environmental impacts of the Endesa El Porton Dam in the Puelo River Basin )

Former Chilean president Ricardo Lagos has even suggested numerous times that the country might need to go nuclear if it didn't dam more rivers, and the Bachelet government is on the record as saying it will decide on the viability of nuclear power before its mandate ends in 2010.

"That's pure blackmail," said Antonio Horvath in an article in NRDC's OnEarth Magazine . "Throw a scare into people and get them to say yes to the dams." Horvath, a provincial senator in Patagonia, a political conservative, and a previous champion of Patagonian development.

Yvon Chouinard, a global environmental icon whose company, Patagonia Inc., is a world leader in sustainable business practices, agrees with Horvath's statement.

"Chile, more than any other country on the planet, is in a position to capitalize on the advancing technologies of solar, wind, geothermal, and wave power," said Chouinard, the son of a French-Canadian who first visited Patagonia with his good friend Tompkins back in 1968. "These technologies are just being developed, so it would be shortsighted for the Chileans to destroy Patagonia."

(See: Geothermal Exploration in Chile's Chillan Hot Springs )

Just one government decree from Bachelet could change the situation dramatically. The two main players in the project to dam Patagonia, Endesa Chile (one of the largest electricity-generation companies in Latin America) and Brookfield, have a great deal of experience in other power-generating techniques. Enel, the Italian co-owner of dam builder Endesa, is a world leader in geothermal power (useful in a volcano-filled country like Chile), and Brookfield owns the Prince Wind Farm in Ontario. But given that faster money can be made in Chile with hydroelectricity, it appears that international power companies won't explore other options until they are mandated to do so.

(These companies have a great deal of experience: Wind Power for Europe: Italy to build 500 new wind plants - Enel & Endesa to Participate ,Wind Energy for Chile’s Mines. BHP Billiton and Pacific Hydro to develop 100 megawatt windfarm in Northern Chile – BHP has first option to buy. , Enel SpA, Europe's second largetst utility and Endesa S.A. owner, ready to develop nuclear power across Europe with EdF Energy of France )

It is still not known when the power companies will be allowed to break ground on the project, but Ontario's Ministry of Business Development reported last year that the companies will "conclude the studies and engineering of the project in June 2008, when it will launch the construction tender."

If the Chilean government gives Brookfield the nod to break ground, Brookfield CEO Flatt will go down in history as the man who industrialized one of the last untouched regions on the planet.

"Our shareholders are paying us to produce a high risk-adjusted return but not take a lot of risk for it," he told the Globe and Mail last year. "We want to earn a very good return, not take very many risks, and never get into something where we bet the company."

But is Flatt overestimating what his clients are willing to support to make a buck?

"Of course I want my pension to earn higher interest, but I had no idea that my investments would help industrialize Patagonia," said Derek Johnston, a Vancouver resident who contributes to the Canada Pension Plan. "I've heard about Patagonia, and I want to go there one day. This world is already trashed enough to see a place like that destroyed."

Orrego, the Chilean environmentalist, was shocked when he learned that Canadian pensioners are paying for the industrial advance into Patagonia.

"Canada is a country with an environmentally conscious reputation," he said. "Canadians should act now to stop the Brookfield consortium from participating in a venture that a vast majority of Chileans consider an aberration."

(Sadly, Orrego does not know Canada. Canada has a very sorry reputation when it comes to the environment: 10 Things Canada Does Best - What Canada doesn't do best is hold domestic mining companies accountable for the damage they do abroad. , Mining Misery: Guatemala is one of many countries that has attracted the investment of Canadian Mining Companies – but at what cost to its people? , Thirst for Energy Fuels Controversial Hydroelectric Power Project in Quebec, Canada )

Paula Christensen, a Patagonian who owns a small lodge with her family on Patagonia's picturesque Lake General Carrera, says that the pendulum of Chilean public opinion will soon swing against the Patagonian power scheme.

Christensen's assertion is supported by the fact that Chilean politicians, businesspeople, and Patagonians have joined the green side of the fight against Brookfield. It was no surprise when socialist politicians such as Rene Alinco spoke out against the power scheme, but business insiders were shocked when the powerful Víctor Hugo Puchi, the kingpin of Chile's billion-dollar salmon-farming industry, joined the fight as well. Puchi's conversion is an indication that Brookfield's opposition is growing in both political clout and financial muscle.

Carlos Munoz, a legendary Patagonian fly fisherman, said the power project means that Chileans will lose while foreigners gain. "Like many other Patagonians, I don't think the power is for the Chilean people," he said. "It's mostly for the mining and industrial companies who need power to increase their production and shareholders' prosperity. Only five percent of their sales go to wages and less than five percent of their income to taxes."

Christensen described a television interview she saw with a different type of Chilean: an old, iron-tough Patagonian. She said the nameless man's simple but thought-provoking words about the Patagonian power scheme made the television interviewer so speechless that he was forced to take a commercial break.

"I might be able to buy another piece of land and start all over again, build a small house and buy some cattle," the old man said. "But for sure the ducks, the geese, the fish, the fox, the huemules, the pumas, and the woodpeckers will never come back, and this is a situation that you, sir, who are a rich and cultured man, and the Chilean government will never be able to revert."

Here is the full article by Rick Montgomery.

Background: Endesa Chile sells Transelec to Hydro Quebec International Inc. for US$ 1.076 billion

NEW YORK--(Oct. 13, 2000)

-- US$ 205 million capital gain and US$ 1.076 billion debt reduction for Endesa
Chile.

-- Five companies with large experience as operators of electricity
transmission networks participated in the tender process.

-- Transelec was incorporated on January 28th, 1993 and has Ch$154.84 billion
pesos.

The Board of Endesa de Chile (NYSE:EOC), 60% owned by Enersis, an affiliate of Endesa, SA (NYSE:ELE), announced yesterday that it has sold 100% of the Compania Nacional de Transmision Electrica S.A.'s (Transelec) shares to Hydro Quebec International Inc., pursuant to a public bidding process carried out by Endesa Chile, Chile's leading generator, in order to dispose its transmission affiliate.

Final price in Transelec sale exceeded minimum price set by Endesa Chile and is above the company's estimation.

Transfer and payment of Transelec shares will take place on October 23rd, 2000, thereby concluding the bidding process initiated on June 28th, 2000, following approval of Endesa Chile's Board of Directors that was ratified by the extraordinary shareholders meeting on August 29th of this year, in accordance with the company's bylaws.

Here is the full article.

Senator Horvath proposes changes to controversial HidroAysen powerline project.

(Dec. 6, 2007) Sen. Antonio Horvath of the center-right National Renovation (RN) party has come up with a plan to reroute a 1,200-mile electricity transmission line planned for southern Chile. The proposal is Horvath’s attempt to smooth out one of the major sticking points surrounding the highly controversial HidroAysén hydroelectric project.

A joint venture between Spanish-Italian electricity giant Endesa and Chilean energy company Colbún, the HidroAysén project calls for five massive hydroelectric dams to be built in far southern Chile’s Region XI, an area also known as Aysén. The dams are slated for the region’s two most powerful rivers: the Baker and the Pascua. Together the five generating facilities would produce an estimated 2,750 MW of electricity – roughly equivalent to 20 percent of the country’s current overall generating capacity.

In order to transport that energy from Patagonia to energy-hungry central and northern Chile, Endesa-Colbún contracted Canadian-owned Transelec to construct a massive power line – the world’s longest – that could involve as many as 5,000 towers and is tentatively planned to cross several national parks and protected zones.

The dam project has attracted significant opposition from local residents and environmental groups who say the dams will be socially and ecologically devastating for the pristine region. The planned transmission line has been a particular lighting rod for criticism. Opponents insist it will be a major blight on the country’s landscape.

There are, however, alternatives, says Sen. Horvath. One possibility would be to redirect the transmission line in order to avoid national parks, reserves and other tourist destinations. In some places the power lines could even be run underwater, as in the case of certain fjords or other ecologically sensitive marine areas, says the RN senator.

“The idea would be to avoid populated areas, tourist attractions and protected areas. There are certain areas that make this a particularly difficult task, for cost reasons basically. And in those areas we’ve looked into the possibility – and even spoken to the companies – about using tunnels or underwater cables,” Horvath told the Santiago Times.

The redesign wouldn’t be cheap. Transelec already expects to spend some US$1.5 billion on the transmission line. Applying this type of redesign could add an additional US$500 million to the already hefty price tag, said Horvath, who has been working with engineers from Seiemens and the Berlin Technical University.

Still, the RN senator insists his proposal is a viable one.

“For many years I was in charge of road building, in particular the camino austral (southern route), and as such I know that there are many valleys in the south that could serve as a route for the cable. The benefit of those valleys is that currently there aren’t any roads there and they aren’t places that either environmentally sensitive or important tourist destinations. We could even take advantage of the situation to build public roads and give the areas a real economic push,” said Horvath.

Here is the full article.

Dam Protest: 320-kilometer horseback trip planned in the Rio Baker & Pascua region to call attention to environment

YEE-HAA CHILE: PATAGONIA DAM WARNING TRIP PLANNED

(Nov. 2, 2007) Opponents of the so-called Aysén Project, a massive hydroelectric venture planned for far southern Chile’s Region XI, will be mounting a symbolic, nine-day cavalcade later this month. Organizers of the 320-kilometer horseback ride are hoping it will bring attention to local communities – places like Tortel and Villa O´Higgins – that could be negatively affected should the government eventually approve the polemical dam project.

“This will be one of the principal initiatives to expose what until now has been covered up, that our people, in terms of their lives as they current know them, are threatened,” said Marco Antonio Díaz, president of the Defenders of the Spirit of Patagonia (ADEP), the Region XI-based community group behind the planned cavalcade.

The epic journey, which could involve as many as 100 riders, is set to begin Monday, Nov. 19, in Cochrane’s central square. Cochrane is one of many towns in the region that because of their proximity to either the Baker or Pascua Rivers – the waterways at the center of the Aysén Project controversy – have an immediate stake in the planned dam venture. The riders expect to complete the marathon cavalcade in Coyhaique, Aysén’s regional capital, on Nov. 29th.

“If allowed to go through, the projects for the dams and transmission line – plus other projects that are in the works – would seriously impact our quality of life in Patagonia, both culturally and economically,” said Díaz.

The ADEP are joined by dozens of local, national and international organizations in opposing the Aysén Project, which is being planned by energy companies Endesa and Colbún. Working together via a joint entity called HidroAysén, the two utilities plan to build five dams – two on the Baker and three on the Pascua – that would together produce some 2,750 MW of electricity.

Here is the full article.

Xstrata & Transelec Negotiate Cuervo River Dam Project

Xstrata, a Swiss mining company planning to build a hydroelectric dam in Chile’s far southern Region XI, has entered into negotiations with Canadian-owned electricity transport company Transelec, the Chilean business daily Estrategia reported this week.

The Swiss company, a substantial player in Chile’s mining industry, hopes to build a 600-MW dam on Region XI’s Cuervo River. The project has not yet been approved by Chile’s National Environmental Commission (CONAMA), which rejected an Environmental Impact Study Xstrata submitted earlier this year (ST, March 22).

Xstrata is by no means the only multinational interested in the energy potential of Patagonia’s powerful, glacier-fed rivers. Spanish electricity giant Endesa, working in collaboration with Chilean energy company Colbún, also has big plans for the area. With their so-called Aysén Project, the Endesa and Colbún plan to build five dams that would together generate some 2,750 MW.

The question for all three companies is how to transport that energy from Region XI (Aysén) to energy hungry central and northern Chile. For Endesa and Colbún, the answer is a US$1.5 billion, 2,000-km. transmission line, to be built by Transelec. Up to now, however, it’s been reported that the carrying capacity of such a power line would be limited to roughly the amount of electricity Endesa and Colbún plan to generate. The transmission line, in other words, would not be able to accommodate Xstrata or any other company with plans to dam Patagonia’s rivers.

An article published Tuesday in Estrategia, however, suggests otherwise. Reporting that Xstrata and Transelec have begun preliminary negotiations, the article went on to suggest that by employing a so-called quadripolar system, the Canadian company could theoretically accommodate Xstrata’s 600-MW contribution. If that is indeed the case, Xstrata could avoid having to build a second, parallel transmission line.

Here is the full article.