(July 25, 2007) While insisting that the controversial Aysén
Project must still go through a customary environmental
evaluation process, the government nevertheless continues to
publicly endorse the controversial hydroelectric venture.
The latest show of implicit government support for the project
came Monday, when President Bachelet and her energy minister
Marcelo Tokman joined Colbún head Bernardo Matte for the
inauguration of a new 70-MW hydroelectric plant in Region VIII
(ST, July 24).
Colbún, a Chilean-owned company, is one of two corporations
behind the US$4 billion Aysén Project, which involves plans to
build four massive hydroelectric dams in Region XI (Aysén).
Together those dams – slated for the Baker and Pascua Rivers –
would generate some 2,400 MW of electricity which would then be
shipped to central Chile. Colbún’s partner in the venture is
Spanish energy giant Endesa, Chile’s largest electricity
producer.
“From the point of view of future energy requirements, those
2,400 MW are necessary, they’re not too much,” said Tokman.
The energy minister added, however, that it would make sense for
Endesa and Colbún to scale the polemical project down a bit –
i.e. reduce the area they originally planned to flood – in order
to appease some of their critics.
“For the companies to accept the recommendations that have been
made on the regional level would without a doubt improve the
quality of the project, reducing its environmental impact,” he
said.
Minister Tokman’s comments come just weeks after Rodrigo
Iglesias, executive secretary of the National Energy Commission,
also threw his weight behind the project (ST, July 3).
The Aysén Project, he said earlier this month, “could strengthen
(Chile’s) energetic security and independence, due to its scale
and hydrologic stability… This will reduce exposure to the
volatile prices or imported fuel that Chile uses to generate
electricity.”
Hydroelectric plants, upon which Chile relies for a significant
part of its electricity production, have been a hot topic of
late. Chile’s other principal source of electricity is natural
gas, almost all of which comes from neighboring Argentina. Over
the past few years, however, Argentina has limited the amount of
gas it sends to Chile, creating what many in the media call an
energy “crisis.”
The so-called crisis, argue companies like Colbún, is all the
more reason why the government should approve construction of
large-scale hydroelectric projects like the much-debated Aysén
Project.
Those types of “mega-projects,” however, have attracted great
criticism, especially from environmentalists, who argue that
rather than back environmentally destructive hydroelectric plans,
the government ought to invest in alternative, renewable energy
sources.
In recent months, organizations such the Region XI-based Citizen
Coalition for Aysén Life Reserve, the Santiago-based
environmental group Ecosistemas, and U.S. NGOs the Sierra Club
and Natural Resources Defence Council have together mounted a
high-profile campaign against the Aysén Project, which they warn
will be both environmentally and socially devastating for the
pristine region.
“Some people believe that (building these dams) is the solution,
a solution that comes at the cost of destroying Region XI’s
rivers. But this is only going to solve the problem for three
years. Three years from now, we’re going to have to dam two more
rivers, and so on and so forth for the next 50 years. In 50 years
we won’t have any more rivers to dam,” Ecosistema’s Hipolito
Medina told the Patagonia Times in a recent interview.
By Benjamin Witte (benwitte@santiagotimes.cl)