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.

Horseback Dam Protest Underway in Chile's Aysen Region - No dams on the Baker & Pascua Rivers

HORSEBACK DAM PROTEST UNDERWAY IN CHILE’S AYSEN REGION

(Nov. 21, 2007) A contingent of 35 horseback riders set off on a 10-day journey through the Region XI (Aysén) Monday morning to protest plans for a massive system of hydroelectric dams on the Baker and Pascua Rivers.

The so-called “Cabalgata Patagonia Sin Represas” or Horseback Ride for Patagonia without Dams, was organized by local activists in conjunction with the Coalition for the Defense of the Spirit of Patagonia, a group that has been at the forefront of opposition to the Aysén dam project.

The tour seeks to highlight the effects of the project on the local communities that inhabit the 330 kilometer route between the town of Cochrane and Coyhaique, the regional capital.

“We are not traveling to Coyhaique just to take a pleasant trip,” said Aquilines Olivares, who has lived in the Aysén region all his life. “We are going through with this campaign so that they see us, they hear us and they give us an answer.”

Before leaving Cochrane, the group sent a letter to Regional Governor Viviana Betancourt urging her to take action against Endesa and Colbún, the companies behind the Aysén dam project. The protestors allege the companies’ claims to water sources and private lands in the region are illegitimate.

The letter also called for a formal and ongoing dialogue between the government and local communities over the potential impact of the project on the region’s natural resources. In 2008 the companies must submit an Environmental Impact Assessment which will be critical in determining the ultimate fate of the project.

(In Chile Environmental Impact Statements are often have little meaning: False Environmental Impact Statements induce Regional Environment Commission to Implement Fines. , and Endesa specializes in obfuscation and non-transparency: Endesa Strategy & Tactics I – Revisiting the Ralco & Pangue Hydroelectric Projects on the Rio Bio Bio . As are government "attempts" to preserve the environment: Chile's Government fines itself for polluting the environment . Other typical anti-EIS strategies used by Asian and Australian hydro-companies: Australian dam proponents try an end run around environmental impact statement, Another Australian environmental impact statement rendered meaningless by 5 week comment period , World must held protect vital Mekong River from hydroelectric development - Lack of transparent environmental impact statements cited. , Chinese 3.5 Billion “Hydroelectric – Iron Mine” complex slated for Africa’s Gabon National Park - EIS requirement disregarded )

Coalition president Marco Antonio Díaz said support for the horseback riders is “spectacular.” “We will show the entire country that the people here are united to stop this project,” he said.

The campaign has generated a great deal of publicity, attracting prominent national and international environmental activists to the cause. Last month the group released a book entitled “Patagonia Sin Represas!” The book features side-by-side “before and after” photographs of pristine Patagonia landscapes as they appear now, and as they are likely to appear if a planned transmission line is eventually constructed throughout the region.

Critics have maintained that the project’s five dams and over 1,400 miles of transmissions lines – which would pass through 12 wildlife reserves – would leave an indelible blight on Chile’s geography and threaten the development of eco-tourism, a promising source of economic growth in Chile’s remote regions.

The Patagonia dam issue also highlights differing visions of the future of Chile’s energy supply. Backers of the project say it would go a long way toward meeting the country’s huge energy demands, which are expected to increase by seven percent in the next year. The Aysén dam complex would generate 2,750 megawatts of electricity – providing nearly 25 percent of the country’s total current generating capacity.

But top environmentalists such as Juan Pablo Orrego, head of the Santiago-based NGO Ecosistemas and a leading opponent of the Aysén project, believes Chile can and must seek alternative solutions to its burgeoning energy demands. He points to the country’s vast potential to develop renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power, options that has not been fully pursued due to Chile’s market-driven energy policy.

“We need to move past the present model, imposed by the energy sector, based on massive hydroelectric and thermoelectric projects,” said Orrego.

Here is the full article.

Aluar Aluminio Argentino SAIC May Spend $3.5 Billion on Patagonia Aluminum Smelter, Dam

Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Aluar Aluminio Argentino SAIC, Argentina's only aluminum producer, may spend $3.5 billion on a smelter and hydroelectric dam in the southern province of Santa Cruz as the company seeks to expand output as prices rise.

``It's a mega-project of really some size,'' Aluar Chairman Javier Madanes said during an interview Oct. 24 in Buenos Aires. (The massive Hydro Aysen project in Patagonia, Chile is estimated to cost 4.0 Billion USD.)

Aluar is competing with other aluminum producers for the rights to dam the Santa Cruz River, Madanes said. The government may award the rights at the end of this year, he said.

Aluminum prices that have risen 89 percent in the past five may keep rallying, as a strengthening global economy boosts demand for metal used in auto parts and beverage cans, Madanes said. Aluar and aluminum producers such as Moscow-based United Co. Rusal and London-based Rio Tinto Plc are seeking to develop smelter projects in areas with abundant energy resources because electricity can be 40 percent of the cost of production.

Aluar already exploits the Futaleufu River in Argentina's southern Chubut province to make aluminum. On the Santa Cruz River, the company wants to build two dams at a cost of $2 billion to provide electricity for a new smelter nearby that would cost at least $1.5 billion, Madanes said.

Aluminum is derived from a dirt-like material called bauxite, and smelting the ore at high temperatures is needed to retrieve the pure metal.

The Santa Cruz River drains off ice-melt from the Perito Moreno glacier, one of Argentina's most popular tourist destinations in the Patagonia region of South America's southern tip.

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The company's majority-owned Hidroelectrica Futaleufu dam provides 472 megawatts of power to generate electricity for the company's Puerto Madryn smelter and local communities. The smelter's capacity is being expanded by 130,000 tons a year to 410,000 tons with an $850 million investment. Aluar plans a further $400 million expansion to 515,000 tons a year.

Here is the full article.

Chilean hydropower project wins antitrust approval

SANTIAGO, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Chile's antitrust commission has given electricity generators Endesa and Colbun the green light to build five hydroelectric power plants in the south of the country to help cover the country's energy shortfall.

In a statement issued late on Friday, the commission said the companies could push ahead with the $4 billion HidroAysen project but it laid down a series of conditions.

The main condition relates to a 1,300-mile (2,000-km) transmission line to connect the plants to Chile's central electricity grid, which serves the most populous part of the country including the capital Santiago.

The commission said the companies must allow bids from third parties who want to use the line. Any such company must be given at least six months to make its bid.

The antitrust commission also insisted Endesa and Colbun should enter a consultation process before they bid for more water rights in the Aysen region.

Finally, it said that the HidroAysen management company must remain a publicly listed company.

Here is the full article.

Chilean Government Commission Backs Aysen Dam Project

Endesa and Colbún’s massive proposed hydroelectric project in the Aysén region received the government’s official backing last week. In an unprecedented gesture of support for the energy companies, National Energy Commission executive secretary Rodrigo Iglesias announced that the project “could strengthen (Chile’s) energetic security and independence, due to its scale and hydrologic stability… This will reduce exposure to the volatile prices of imported fuel that Chile uses to generate electricity.”

The Free Competition Defense Tribunal (TDLC) had solicited the government’s opinion on the project as part of its ongoing investigation into the potential effects of the Aysén dam project on the Chilean energy market. Concern has been raised about a possible monopoly on water rights in the Central Interconnected System, or SIC.

Spanish electrical giant Endesa currently holds 40 percent of water rights in the SIC: it controls 3,459 megawatts and has requested the rights to another 1,081 megawatts, a petition currently being processed by the General Water Directorship (DGA). The DGA administers the nation’s water code in order to regulate water rights and prevent monopolies (ST June 28). Chilean energy company Colbún currently controls about 2,000 megawatts in water rights.

The US $2.5 billion “Aysén Project” would construct four massive hydroelectric dams along Region XI's two largest rivers (Baker and Pascua) and generate an additional 2,400 megawatts of electricity in the SIC (ST June 16).T

hough this is the first official government commentary in favor of the Aysén Project, the southern river project previously received support from government officials looking to find a solution to Chile’s precarious energy situation. Senator and ex-President Eduardo Frei called the project a “national priority”, while Energy Minister Marcelo Tokman has said the hydro-powered plants are necessary to increase the electrical system’s capacity.

Here is the full article.

Chile's Ex-President Eduardo Frei gives thumbs up to Aysen Project

Ecologist Orrego Questions Frei’s “Double Standard”

Senate head Eduardo Frei has come out strongly in favor of a controversial plan to build several massive hydroelectric dams in Region XI, an area of Patagonia also known as Aysén.

In his most recent Senate Web site column, Frei – a former president (1994-2000) who continues to represent the moderate Christian Democratic party – described the proposed dams as a “priority for the country.”

“One thing’s clear: Chile is in an extremely vulnerable position in terms of energy,” the column reads. “That (vulnerability) limits our growth and affects our competitiveness. The country’s overall interests require us to take advantage of all the resources available to us… Water is one of them.”

Two of the country’s principal utilities – Spanish-owned electricity giant Endesa and Colbún, a Chilean company – are together looking to construct two massive hydroelectric dams on each of Region XI’s largest rivers: the Baker and the Pascua. Dubbed the Aysén Project, the dams will cost an estimated US$2.5 billion. That price tag that does not include construction of a 2,000-kilometer transmission line – the world’s longest – that would feed roughly 2,400 MW of electricity to energy-hungry central and northern Chile.

Frei and other backers of the project insist the dams are both necessary and sound. To start with, the Aysén Project promises to free Chile from its vulnerability vis-à-vis ongoing shortages of Argentine natural gas. Patagonia’s rivers, furthermore, represent a clean and renewable source of energy, they argue.

“It seems absurd not to take advantage of the wealth of electricity that our rivers can provide us. This is the least polluting, cheapest kind of energy,” Frei explained in his column.

Despite its apparent benefits, the Endesa-Colbún dam project has generated a tremendous amount of local, national and more recently, international opposition. The dams and transmission line would be environmentally devastating for the pristine southern Chile, say opponents. Instead, they argue, the country should invest in energy alternatives: among them smaller-scale hydroelectric dams, wind generators and solar cells.

Leading critics of the project include Ecosistemas, a Santiago-based NGO headed by ecologist Juan Pablo Orrego; a broad-based Region XI-based coalition calling itself the Citizen Coalition for Aysén Life Reserve; and the influential U.S. environmental organization Natural Resources Defense Council. Another U.S. NGO, the Sierra Club, has also recently joined the anti-dam campaign (ST, May 1).

Here is the full article.

Chile's HidroAysen to boost capital $66.5 million

SANTIAGO, Oct 17 (Reuters) - HidroAysen, formed by electric generators Endesa Chile and Colbun to develop a hydroelectric mega-project in Chile's remote south, said on Wednesday it had agreed to a capital increase of some $66.5 million.

Endesa Chile and Colbun plan to build five hydroelectric power plants on the Baker and Pascua Rivers in the rainy southern region of Aysen in response to Chile's current energy shortfall.

The company said in a statement to the stocks and insurance regulator SVS that it had approved the issue of 1,337,500 new shares in an extraordinary shareholders meeting on Tuesday at a minimum price of 10,000 pesos ($19.96) per share.

The initial investment planned for the HidroAysen project involved some $4 billion, but subsequent modifications, including a reduction in the planned flood area, have increased estimates.

Here is the full article.