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EspañolProtecting Patagonia
Chile is facing an energy crisis, but is damming wild rivers the solution?
FIMA's Andres Pirazzoli visits Chile's Torres del Paine National Park.
ELAW is working to protect the heart of Patagonia from a Spanish company's plans to dam the Baker, Pascua and El Salto rivers for a hydroelectric scheme. The proposed $2.5 billion HidroAysén project would flood 22,000 acres and require the world's longest transmission line -- crossing national parks, wildlife protected areas and forest reserves.
A strong feed-in program, such as the one
adopted in Germany, may be the best way to encourage sustainable energy
generation in Chile.
ELAW has teamed up with lawyers at Fiscalia del Medio Ambiente (FIMA) in Santiago to protect Patagonia's wild rivers by strengthening Chilean law to encourage more generation of electricity from renewable sources. Andres Pirazzoli is developing FIMA's renewable energy program. He traveled to Eugene in February to work one-on-one with ELAW Staff Attorney Jennifer Gleason. Jen teaches energy law at the University of Oregon School of Law and helps grassroots lawyers around the world promote renewable energy.
Renewable Energy for Chile
FIMA is working with Chile Sustentable to develop laws that would promote renewables as part of Chile's energy strategy. Jen has been working with lawyers from the U.K.-based Climate Justice Programme and the World Future Council (WFC) to analyze laws and polices that create renewable energy "feed-in tariff" (FIT) programs around the world. These programs encourage the generation of electricity from qualified renewable sources by guaranteeing generators that they will be able to sell electricity to the grid for a set price for a set period of time. A strong feed-in program, such as the one adopted in Germany, may be the best way to encourage sustainable energy generation in Chile.
FIMA is working with Chile Sustentable on a law reform effort to make Chile's voluntary quota system mandatory. Next, the organizations want to consider a new law to address climate change that would include a feed-in program. Jen and Andres will work together to develop a feed-in program that will compliment Chile's renewable portfolio standard and help Chile reach its renewable goals more quickly.
Andres Pirazzoli and Jennifer Gleason discuss Chile's energy crisis on KLCC-FM's "Northwest Passage."
Jen gained valuable insight from dozens of experts who are promoting and implementing FITs at a March workshop in Washington, D.C. sponsored by WFC, Worldwatch Institute, and the Heinrich Böll Foundation. Also in March, Jen joined WFC's Dan Bristow on a panel presentation at the University of Oregon's Public Interest Environmental Law Conference: "Solving the Energy Crisis: Are we making the right policy decisions?"
The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the first stage of the HidroAysén project is scheduled to be released for public review in early 2008. ELAW scientists will review the EIA and help its partners in Chile assess the project's pitfalls and propose sustainable alternatives. In preparation for this, ELAW has provided its partners with information about common flaws in EIAs for hydroelectric dams. ELAW has reviewed more than a dozen EIAs for proposed hydroelectric projects around the world. ELAW partners are using these reviews to help communities make their voices heard and challenge ill-advised dams.
