NewsTaco

By Amanda Maxwell, La Onda Verde de NRDC

Chile

Chile’s Minister of Energy, Jorge Bunster, proposed a new tender system for renewable energy, which would competitively bid out renewable energy contracts to independent generators. This proposal would replace the government’s previous one, called “the 20-20 law,” which would have required that 20 percent of Chile’s electricity supply to come from renewables by 2020. If implemented, the new tendering scheme would mean that traditional large generators would no longer need to meet the current obligation of obtaining between 5 percent and 10 percent of electricity from renewable sources. Instead, specialized renewable energy suppliers would compete to supply this power but without set obligations. (Plataforma Urbana 01/09/13)

Chile’s Committee of Ministers, its highest administrative authority, delayed ruling on the controversial HidroAysén mega-dam project again, this time until March. The Committee must assess the almost two thousand appeals that were filed against the project’s environmental approval, by civil society and by the company itself. Environment Minister Maria Ignacio Benitez says that the committee may need more time to review the appeals, while environmental groups feel the decision is political and not technical. (Radio Universidad de Chile 01/10/2013) The Catholic Church’s Bishop of Aysén, Luis Infanti, delivered letters to the five ministers in the committee, urging them not to rule on the HidroAysén based on purely economic interests, but to also consider social interests. (Cooperativa 01/09/2013)

Chile is warming, claims new evidence from Catholic University’s Institute of Geography. Attempting to quantify the impact of global warming on the country over the past three decades, the research determined that the average minimum and maximum temperatures in Santiago have increased between 0.19°C-0.32°C and 0.07°C-0.15°C per decade, respectively. These figures are in line with climate projections that show Chile’s average temperature increasing between 2°C and 3°C by the end of the century in the worst-case scenario. (La Tercera 01/06/2013)

A study completed by Solarbuzz, a solar energy market research company, has named Chile a regional leader in solar energy, indicating that the country will represent more than half of all photovoltaic energy generated in Latin America and the Caribbean by 2017. Although the country’s total solar capacity is still relatively low—the estimate includes both currently operating facilities as well as proposed projects—there is substantial interest in expanding the role of solar power in energy generation. Upon completion, plans currently being considered would add close to 760 MW to the Chilean grid. (La Tercera 01/07/2013)

Costa Rica

The Environment Commission of Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly will consider a proposal to create a new canton (a Costa Rican administrative division) joining Corcovado with Bahía Drake and parts of Sierpe. The idea of a new “ecological” canton was presented by local residents as a popular initiative with the goal of strengthening environmental conservation in the Osa region. (El Financiero 1/7/2013)

A group of about 100 false killer whales are visiting Caño Island, about 20 kilometers off of the coast of Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula. Some individuals have stayed in the vicinity up to a month and a half. Generally this species is found in deeper waters far from the coast. Costa Rica’s Osa is an exception, making the region an important site to study the species. (La Nación 1/11/2013)

Mexico

Scientists announced that they expect fewer gray whales to be born off the Baja California Sur coast this year than normal, due to the lack of food available to the whales in the Arctic. A biologist at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Wayne Peryman, says that these whales found less food in the Arctic and that this will affect their reproduction. Around 20,000 gray whales make the 15,000 kilometer trip every year from the Arctic to Mexico’s Baja California Sur to give birth and raise young. (Octavo Día, 1/03/13).

The new Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources (Sermanat), Juan José Guerra Abud, stated that Mexico has a responsibility to ensure that all future economic growth is sustainable. “Economic growth has to be sustainable, that is our responsibility, we are not going to permit development to violate environmental laws…” To achieve this Guerra Abud wants to fortify the human capacity of the Federal Attorney of Environmental Protection (Profepa) with staff from Semarnat to allow Profepa to better monitor compliance with environmental laws. He also noted the upcoming release of new policies that will bring emissions in line with levels permissible in the U.S. and prevent the use of cars that do not meet new emission standards. Finally, Guerra Abud will look to achieve the goal of protecting 17 percent of the nation’s surface area and 10 percent of its oceans. (Veracruzanos.info 1/08/13).

The CEO of International Power Expo, Alberto Segura Larios, noted Mexicans’ increasing awareness of renewable energy and sustainability and how that will contribute to Mexico being a large driver of renewable energies this year. The growing awareness has led an increasing number of people to participate in sustainable energy programs. Many Mexican businesses are also finding new technologies and practices that promote intelligent consumerism and environmental protection. (Reve 1/2/13).

Regional

The town of Río Negro diverged from the national government of Argentina with itsdecision to ban all unconventional exploration or extraction of hydrocarbons, including fracking. The Cinco Saltos City Council’s seven members all voted unanimously for the ban, using health and potential negative environmental effects as the main reason for this ban. The town, which has already had its share of contamination with mercury, is most concerned about the water supply safety. Because fracking utilizes so much water in its process, as well as so many chemicals, the town believes that there is no fail-proof way of containing all of the possible contaminates. Cinco Saltos leads the way as the first jurisdiction in Latin America to pass such a ban. (The Independent Argentina 1/10/13).

A new report highlights that Latin America has excellent opportunity for wind power growth. The region’s current and future wind projects could have a total installed capacity of 46 GW by 2025. Brazil will lead have a significant lead in the region, with 31.6 GW of installed capacity by that time. Mexico is likely to have the second highest installed wind capacity in 2025, with 6.6 GW. (Renewable Energy World 01/10/2012)

This article was first published in NRDC Switchboard.

Amanda Maxwell is a born and bred Jersey girl, but has lived for varying amounts of time in Michigan, Vermont, Rhode Island, New York, and the Czech Republic before moving to Washington, DC. Prior to joining NRDC she received my Masters degree in International Politics and Economics with a focus in Renewable Energy policy from Charles University in Prague. While there, she gained an appreciation for night running, train travel (especially of the high speed variety), and the local pivo. She received a Bachelors degree in history and Spanish from Middlebury College, and also studied in Buenos Aires.

By Jose Gonzalez, NewsTaco

2012 closed with an interesting note: As reported in this article from Reuters, the term “fracking” was more popular than “climate change” in US online searches.

Fracking, the common term for hydraulic fracturing, was across the news in 2012 as shale oil and natural gas extraction took off. For anyone unfamiliar with the term or process, it is essentially breaking up rock with pressurized fluid in order to release oil and natural gas. But the process comes with reports of concern about the side effects on the environment and nearby communities—and as the Matt Damon-produced movie “Promised Land”, hits the theaters, fracking is cresting to be a key environmental debate.

But does fracking resonate as a Latino issue? Are there a significant number of affected Latino communities? Is the opposition to fracking embedded with Latino faces?

In Environmental & Food Justice, Environmental Justice scholar Dr. Devon Peña highlights a crucial point:

“The majority of anti-fracking activists are white, urban, and middle class. A growing number of the low-paid and at-risk workers hired by the natural gas and oil exploration, drilling, and extraction companies are rural, poor, Black, and Latino.”

This tends to pit at-risk communities with the workers in the fields, and with Latinos being framed as enemies in the process instead of as potential allies. The concern is that the anti-fracking movement could suffer from the same concerns of other conservation efforts.

As Dr. Peña also states:

“Indeed, a continuing challenge for progressives in the U.S. today is the need to build a bridge between environmental and immigrant defense and workers’ organizing rights movements. The divide between the green, the brown, and the blue needs attention.

The most recent evidence of this comes from the anti-fracking movement centered in the Marcellus shale communities of Pennsylvania and New York. According to one source, the overwhelmingly white and middle class anti-fracking movement in that region is attacking the Latino workers exploited by the natural gas companies in the current drive to extract as much as possible before tougher regulations kick in – if they do and that seems far from certain. White eco-activists are once again demonizing Latino immigrant workers.”

But Latino communities may also be at risk from the environmental effects of fracking. Low-income communities and especially communities of color have long lived with concerns over contaminated water. But contaminated water from fracking is a relatively new issue that did not really take off until this past decade with rural white communities—and it may be that for Latino communities it is simply underreported, especially in areas of Southern California and the colonias of Texas.

In California, with the discovery and development of what is known as the Monterey Shale, fracking may be added to the host of environmental challenges Latinos face there. While a big focus has been on how it will affect Monterey County agriculture and wine country, the shale field extends into the San Joaquin Valley, home to many Latino communities.

The process is moving forward, and many of the debates had in other parts of the country are arriving in California.  With its significant Latino population, it will be interesting to see how Latinos continue to be part of the debate at the state level and nationally. Some Latino voices have made it part of the dialogue. But in order avoid some of the pitfalls of other conservation issues, the environmental debate over fracking may be in need of some Latino perspectives.

[Photo by Bob Warhover-NEOGAP]

By Adam Schwitters, Burnt Orange Report 

According to seismologist Bill Ellsworth, lead author of a recent USGS study, there has been a “remarkable increase” in earthquakes magnitude 3.0 or greater in the midwest and southern plains in the last few years.  As it turns out, these quakes are “almost certainly” man-made.  The likely cause of cause of all these quakes is a by-product of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) the drilling process by which oil and gas companies shoot a slurry of water, sand, and chemicals into deep shale formations at extremely high pressure to “unlock” the fossil fuels locked within.  Fracking has sparked a natural gas boom of historic proportions causing prices to drop from nearly $15 per million BTU in 2005, to less than $2 today.

It isn’t the drilling itself that is causing these fracking quakes.  Actually, they are caused by the disposal of fracking wastewater.  The process requires a ridiculous amount of water.  A single fracking well pad (which supports up to 16 individual wells) can use over 80 million gallons of water a week!  That water is not cheap to treat and is often injected deep into the earth into supposedly stable sandstone formations.  Here, that water acts as a sort of lubricant, allowing (generally) small faults within the rock to slip, which produces the temblors not normally associated with Dallas or eastern Ohio.

While unsettling, the quakes in Ohio, Texas, and Oklahoma are unlikely to cause significant damage.  The faults in these areas are very small, and the underlying geography is stable.  As fracking moves into less stable geography, however, the earthquake risk could rise significantly.  A geothermal energy project in Basel, Switzerland, which used a process very similar to fracking, caused a 3.4 magnitude earthquake which resulted in some minor damage.  While that quake was not particularly large, a quake on the same fault in 1356 completely destroyed the city.  Swiss citizens were alarmed, and work on the project was halted.  Much, much scarier was the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in western China which killed approximately 70,000 people.  According to Fan Xiao of the Sichuan Geology and Mineral Bureau, it is “very likely” that the construction and filling of the Zipingpu dam and reservoir in 2004 led to the disaster.  The dam was positioned on top of a fault line, and the combination of the weight of the lake, and water seeping into the rock probably caused the quake.

Now, drilling companies are moving into fracking California, which possesses the largest shale formation in the US, and, of course, a problematic geologic history.  Hopefully, the release of this study will give pause to drillers eager to explore gas deposits in Los Angeles itself.  We cannot allow fracking drilling companies to cause the “Big One.”

Adam Schwitters is a staff writer for Burnt Orange Report and a writer of other random nonsense including the worlds most important Law & Order SVU blog, www.munchmybenson.com.

[Image courtesy Burnt Orange Report]