Power Struggle: Chileans Face Off on Hydroelectric Dams
White, Benjamin
A startlingly cold storm pushed its way across central Chile last February, blanketing the Andes in snow and reminding Santiago's more than 5 million residents that autumn was on its way. The...
...In this respect, Orrego says, Chile would do well to follow the example set 30 years ago by California...
...They're unmanageable because this region is very fragile, ecologically, geologically, and culturally...
...Sticking to the plan, however, may prove easier said than done for the Endesa-Colb從 conglomerate, which now finds itself on the defensive...
...Though still very much a local movement, the anti-dam coalition has also attracted a fare share of high-profile, and in some cases unlikely, allies...
...This has blocked the development of energy sources that are friendlier and more respectful to both the environment and the people," Orrego says...
...That's where the so-called Ays始 Project comes in...
...Before signing off on the Ays始 deal, the NRDC official adds, Chilean authorities should take a hard, technically based look at all the alternatives...
...But what's happening is that the cost-benefit equations currently being used don't take into account environmental impact, and environmental, social and cultural costs...
...The geography of the zone-very tall peaks, with very powerful rivers, rain that falls intensely in short periods of time to produce these powerful rivers-all of this is unusual," says economist Rodrigo Pizarro, head of a Santiago-based environmental policy group called Fundaci溶 Terram...
...Another strange bedfellow in the fight against Endesa-Colb從 is Senator Antonio Horvath of the center-right National Renovation Party...
...It's just taken for granted that these types of projects are necessary," Pizarro says...
...These projects are immense, on a scale that's unmanageable for this region," says Peter Hartmann, an architect who heads the Committee for the Defense of Flora and Fauna, one of the coalition's member organizations...
...Chile's National Environmental Commission has yet to approve the Ays始 Project...
...Puchi's company operates salmon farms in the Archipelago de Los Chonos, directly offshore from Ays始...
...One has to look at the whole picture," Orrego says...
...Unfortunately, says economist Rodrigo Pizarro, the roots of Chile's energy "crisis" are simply not being discussed, at least not within official circles...
...Developed as a joint venture by Endesa and Colb從, a Chilean entity, the Ays始 Project is a $2.5 billion plan to build hydroelectric dams in Chile's Region XI, an isolated and sparsely populated zone also known as Ays始...
...In early 2004, Argentina began restricting the flow of natural gas it sends to Chile...
...From this point of view, the question of how Chile will meet its electricity demand, so fretted about in the Chilean media, becomes in large part a question of how to reduce that demand...
...Then there are the camps, the heavy machinery, the smoke, dust, and spillage," he adds...
...Once in place, HidroAys始 says, these dams would not only help alleviate the country's energy woes but would also operate with a clean, renewable energy source...
...The Ays始 Project calls for flooding about 93 square kilometers of the wilderness area, dramatically altering the landscape and affecting animals, plants, and adjoining towns...
...A multimillionaire who made his fortune in the designer clothing industry, Tompkins owns a vast amount of territory in southern Chile, including the 700,000-acre Pumal地, declared a nature sanctuary in 2005...
...But the issue goes beyond household winter heating...
...And, in terms of this Patagonian basin, which is so valuable environmentally and culturally, it's this whole picture that we consider simply unacceptable...
...It says the project is simply too big and will, if approved, devastate the region's unique landscape and ecosystems...
...Yes or no...
...The organization now plans to send a fact-finding team to Chile, giving NRDC representatives an opportunity to make face-to-face connections with ground-level opponents...
...Chile's energy companies produce about 43% of the country's electricity by burning fossil fuels, mostly natural gas, according to the U.S...
...Instead, controversial mega-projects like Ays始 are treated on a case-by-base basis, framed as black-and-white issues: Do people agree with the project...
...And if no debate takes place...
...In fact, HidroAys始 has not even submitted the requisite environmental-impact studies, though it says it will do so by the end of the year...
...These pristine zones will eventually be taken over," Pizarrro says...
...We see this as a dead-end alley, with phenomenal social, cultural, and environmental costs...
...First and foremost, the coalition objects to the HidroAys始 venture on environmental grounds...
...For several months now the 1.2 million-member NRDC-due in no small measure to the personal involvement of its famous senior environmental attorney, Robert Kennedy Jr.-has been internationally publicizing the issue...
...Calling itself the Citizen Coalition for Ays始 Life Reserve, the opposition group is based primarily in the Region XI towns of Cochrane and Coyhaique and comprises about a dozen smaller organizations...
...The government and the media instead ask, How will Chile meet its growing demand for electricity...
...More candidly, the AquaChile president also says he fears the dams will affect water quality and thereby hurt salmon farmers operating in areas where rivers like the Baker, Chile's most voluminous, deposit into the sea...
...Chile-cut off from the rest of the continent by its northern desert, the Andes to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west-is something of an island...
...That's because despite the Ays始 Project's apparent benefits, it has attracted many opponents-including local activists, a well-known Santiago-based ecologist, an unabashedly conservative senator with ties to the Augusto Pinochet government, a salmon magnate, and U.S...
...This puts Horvath on the same page as Jacob Scherr, the international program director for the U.S.-based Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC...
...Energy Information Administration...
...Instead, he says, by focusing exclusively on hydroelectric and thermoelectric projects, Chile has simply followed a policy imposed by the country's private energy companies, particularly Endesa and Colb從...
...And that, he says, could be the case in Chile if it implements similar policies...
...There would be a huge change to the landscape and in the area's future as a well-preserved, pristine wilderness," he says...
...Last December the group designated Chilean Patagonia a so-called BioGem, featuring the area prominently on its Web site and focusing particularly on the threat posed by hydroelectric dams...
...Seasoned environmental activists Orrego and Hartmann are by no means alone in opposing the project...
...The glacier-fed, turquoise Baker and Pascua rivers cut through a region of pristine mountains, where huemuls, an endangered species of Andean deer, and other unique plants and animals live...
...Right now they say these [alternatives] are prohibitively expensive...
...To reduce demand and to lessen the state's dependence on foreign oil, California established the Energy Commission (EC), which explored alternative energy sources and implemented strict conservation measures...
...The project calls specifically for damming both of Ays始's two biggest rivers, the Baker and the Pascua...
...In other parts of the world, these types of rivers have already been dammed...
...Together these dams would generate an estimated 2,400 megawatts, or about 30% of the electricity now available in central Chile, going a long way toward meeting Chile's growing demand...
...So it's no coincidence that on the morning of the strange summer storm, the top business story in El Mercurio, Chile's largest daily newspaper, announced, "Chile in 2007 Suffers the Worst Gas Cuts Since the Crisis Began...
...The largest hydroelectric venture in the nation's history, the Ays始 Project would also create an estimated 4,000 jobs, at least during the construction phase, which HidroAys始-the joint-venture company specially created to carry out the project-expects to launch in 2009...
...Nevertheless, the companies behind the massive venture are confident their mega-project will proceed on schedule...
...The company's massive investment, it says, will help to further develop the region and reduce local electricity costs...
...In the late 1960s and early 1970s, with the California economy rapidly growing, electricity demand, just as in Chile, held pace, averaging between 6% and 7% annually...
...And because a 1995 treaty with Argentina stipulates an Argentine monopoly on the Chilean natural-gas market, Chile lacks an alternative supplier...
...Juan Pablo Orrego, a Santiago-based ecologist with a long history of fighting Endesa, says roads bulldozed to deliver the dam's turbines and generators would mar the region forever...
...Born and raised in the area, Puchi says he opposes the dams on "personal" grounds...
...The area is indeed magnificent, both in its beauty and its natural rarity...
...Horvath, a political conservative and onetime collaborator of the Pinochet government, strongly promotes and defends the salmon industry...
...Once in place, furthermore, the Ays始 Project will likely encourage other hydroelectric ventures to the region, opponents say...
...The nation's media, as they have for three years now, marked the change in seasons with alarming reports about the so-called Argentine natural-gas crisis...
...Horvath has come out in favor of alternatives to the Ays始 plan, such as building small-scale hydroelectric dams and using ocean tides, wind, the sun, and underground volcanic heat as energy sources...
...Another all too often ignored option, critics say, is conservation...
...These extraction-based industries, which also include fishmeal and wood pulp production, not only suck up vast quantities of electricity, but they're also major polluters...
...This, they argue, is the only way for Chile to truly free itself from its dependence on Argentine natural gas...
...The result, explains John Wilson, a councilor for the EC was that the annual demand growth rate went down to 2...
...Xstrata (formerly Falconbridge), a Swiss mining company, is looking to dam the nearby Cuervo River...
...Will the project impact the area environmentally...
...Although environmentalists often malign Chile's $2 billion-a-year salmon-farming industry, which is beginning to expand into Ays始, the anti-dam coalition finds itself working with one of the salmon industry's major players: Victor Hugo Puchi, president of a company called AquaChile...
...Conservation rarely enters the discussion...
...As a result, Patagonia, home to the only temperate rainforest in the southern hemisphere, has a one-of-a-kind ecosystem...
...Two smaller plants would be ready by 2016 and 2018, respectively...
...That, according to Juan Pablo Orrego, is exactly what Chilean policy makers have failed to do for years...
...A natural-gas shortage thus threatens the power supply in a country where, according to Endesa-the Spanish electricity giant that is Chile's biggest utility company-demand is growing by more than 6% annually...
...Chile is stuck in a primary productive stage...
...And there's going to be an enormous environmental loss in a place that has so much value...
...Chile's rising energy needs are not being driven up by individual households, Orrego says, but rather by industry, particularly mining, which is the country's primary source of revenue...
...The area's going to be invaded by an external culture...
...environmental attorney Robert Kennedy Jr., among others...
...The first of the project's dams, a 680-megawatt plant known as Baker I, could be ready as early as 2012, and the even larger Pascua I plant, at 940 megawatts, is scheduled for completion in 2014...
...If, on the other hand, growth rates remain at their current levels, Chile's electricity use per person will exceed that of California by 2017, Wilson says...
...Unless the government of Chile steps up and pardons Patagonia, the area will be electrocuted, it will be destroyed," Scherr says...
...According to the country's leading energy companies, the answer lies in expanding the country's network of hydroelectric dams, which already meets about 53% of demand...
...Yes or no...
...It really has been since the Spanish first came here," Orrego says...
...The cuts have tended to be most severe during the cold winter months, when Argentina's domestic demand is highest and gas suppliers, therefore, have less to export...
...But on the issue of the Ays始 dams, Horvath and Tompkins are for once seeing eye to eye...
...And for me, that's painful...
...But the biggest problem with Chile's energy policy, say Orrego and other opponents of the Ays始 Project, is that it reinforces the country's age-old development model based on exporting raw materials...
...There's going to be a [continued] territorial centralization and concentration...
...Another major concern is the plan to build a 2,000-kilometer, $1.5 billion transmission line-the world's longest-that would cut through both protected and unprotected wilderness, transporting electricity mainly to Santiago and to Chile's massive mines, where consumption is highest...
...He has also faced off on numerous occasions with resident enviro-philanthropist Douglas Tompkins of the United States over a plan to extend Chile's Southern Highway (Carretera Austral) through Pumal地 Park...
Vol. 40 • May 2007 • No. 3
