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2011

NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America

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Dominican Republic: First Steps To Green Economy, Charles Arthur Dec 2011

Dominican Republic: First Steps To Green Economy, Charles Arthur

NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America

In October, the countrys first wind farm, near the western town of Juancho in the province of Pedernales, began generating electricity. The US$100 million project, built by public and private investors, was opened by President Leonel Fernández, who said that the 33 megawatts of wind power that the farm will generate was the first step toward helping the Dominican Republic reduce its dependence on petroleum imports.'


Brazilian Government Attempts To Stabilize Ethanol Supply With New Regulation, Ana Cristina Powell Aug 2011

Brazilian Government Attempts To Stabilize Ethanol Supply With New Regulation, Ana Cristina Powell

NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America

For the past four decades, Brazil has moved to replace petroleum with highly efficient sugarcane-based ethanol, primarily to protect against recurring global oil crises and address concerns about the effect of greenhouse-gas emissions on the environment. Despite the immense promise of the ethanol industry, however, Brazilian drivers who choose to fill their tanks with the biofuel continue to face uncertain supplies and unstable prices. Even before being sworn in on Jan. 1, 2011, Brazil's President-elect Dilma Rousseff met with her agriculture minister-designate Wagner Rossi to request that he confer with ethanol producers to inform them how dissatisfied the government was …


Ecuadoran Government Set To Resume Armadillo Oil Project Despite Opposition From Indigenous Communities And Environmentalists, Luis Ángel Saavedra Jul 2011

Ecuadoran Government Set To Resume Armadillo Oil Project Despite Opposition From Indigenous Communities And Environmentalists, Luis Ángel Saavedra

NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America

The Ecuadoran government reopened a call for tenders for the Armadillo oil field, in the Amazonian province of Orellana, where evidence has been found of settlements and movement of the Tagaeri and Taromenane peoples, who remain in voluntary isolation. The new call for tenders has produced a controversy, not only among environmentalists, the indigenous movement, and the government but also within the government team, since the Tagaeri and Taromenane peoples are beneficiaries of protective measures called for by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).


Biofuels Fighting For Space In Central America And Cuba, Adriana E. Sánchez Jun 2011

Biofuels Fighting For Space In Central America And Cuba, Adriana E. Sánchez

NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America

Brazil has found great success building its ethanol industry with the use of sugarcane, and there are suggestions that other countries in Latin America might replicate this feat, allowing them to use biofuels to increase their energy independence. Central American countries and Cuba share some similarities with Brazil, and they are the ones often mentioned for potential growth in biofuels. These countries face significant obstacles because of a lack of infrastructure and inadequate energy policies, which make them particularly dependent on foreign imports of fossil fuels to partially satisfy their populations' growing energy demand.


Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff Proceeding With Nuclear Power Despite Fukushima Accident, Graziela Aronovich May 2011

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff Proceeding With Nuclear Power Despite Fukushima Accident, Graziela Aronovich

NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America

The disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan has increased pressure on the Brazilian government to justify the use of nuclear power, but there is little evidence that President Dilma Rousseffs administration plans to make any major changes to Brazil's nuclear-power program (Programa Nuclear Brasileiro, PNB). Rousseff has made no direct public comments about the PNB since the accident in Japan, but Secretary of Science and Technology Aloizio Mercadante reiterated the government's intention to continue the program, launched in 1985 with the inauguration of the Angra 1 power station during the administration of then President José Sarney …


Chile's Tiny Gas Industry A Big Problem For President Sebastián Piñera, Benjamin Witte-Lebhar Feb 2011

Chile's Tiny Gas Industry A Big Problem For President Sebastián Piñera, Benjamin Witte-Lebhar

NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America

Although it represents just a small slice of the countrys overall energy pie, Chile's minor Patagonia-based natural-gas industry is causing major political problems for first-year President Sebastián Piñera. An anomaly in Chile's otherwise privatized energy sector, the state-owned Empresa Nacional del Petróleo (ENAP) extracts a modest amount of natural gas from oil fields it controls in Magallanes, an area of southern Patagonia also known as Region XIII. The homegrown industry is an exception in Chile, which satisfies the bulk of its fuel needs with foreign imports. In the country's more populous central regions, natural gas--used not only for heating and …