(June 18, 2009) In a letter submitted yesterday to the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, environmental group Probe International urged CEO David Denison to abandon a controversial hydro-transmission scheme in southern Chile’s Patagonia region.
(June 17, 2009) Last August, HidroAysén submitted its Environmental Impact Assessment to the environmental authorities for its proposed hydroelectric dams in the Patagonia region of southern Chile. The EIA excluded the transmission component of the project, which would be developed by Transelec and includes a 1,500-mile long transmission line and related infrastructure crossing through 14 legally protected natural areas and thousands of private properties, around volcanoes, and over fjords spanning, in all, more than half of Chile’s entire length.
(May 28, 2009) Early this morning the nonprofit environmental organization International Rivers flew a giant "Dam Home Depot" banner over the company’s annual shareholder meeting in Atlanta. Protesters also unfurled a banner and raised questions inside the shareholder’s meeting, asking Home Depot executives to account for their role in supporting the destruction of Patagonia.
(May 15, 2009) We are writing on behalf of the “Patagonia Defense Council” (“Consejo de Defensa de la Patagonia” – CDP), a diverse coalition of 58 organizations from Chile, USA, Canada, Spain and Italy, who have assumed the mission of defending the environmental integrity of Chilean Patagonia threatened by a mega hydroelectric project, called HidroAysén, and the associated transmissions lines.
(May 5, 2009) [video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDKcbT3YS2w autoplay:0]
(April 23, 2009) La eléctrica dijo que la firma que trabaja en la línea de transmisión hizo las solicitudes como medida de precaución.
(April 20, 2009) The latest public survey addressing the issue of the construction of hydroelectric mega-projects in the Aysén Region of the Chilean Patagonia shows that the Chilean public is clearly against the dams.
(April 8, 2009) The Globe and Mail reported on March 26 that Canada’s Pension Plan Investment Board plans to venture into debt markets by selling up to $5-billion in bonds to cut borrowing costs and increase its flexibility to make new investments.
(March 5, 2009) Behind Chile’s controversial plans to further dam the rivers of its ecologically delicate Patagonia region, which may soon be partially funded by the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), the Chilean government must first settle a growing debate over who actually controls Patagonia’s rivers. A number of companies were granted legal rights to Patagonia’s rivers during the final years of the infamous Pinochet regime, and the current plan is to build five large dams in the region. Now, the people of Patagonia want control of their rivers back.
(March 2, 2009) “The project cost that includes complete work to make the project operative is $11.50 billion against the last estimate of $8.5 billion just six months ago,” official sources in the Ministry of Water and Power said.
(March 2, 2009) Energy company HidroAysén spent an estimated US$40 million in 2008 on its controversial Region XI hydroelectric dam project, a hefty amount considering the multi-billion plan hasn’t even been approved by government environment authorities.
(March 1, 2009) Breaking its silence on the Rs 374.50-crore scam in Kerala, SNC Lavalin of Canada has denied any wrongdoing and, instead, blamed the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front government for not having cooperated with it.
(February 28, 2009) In a letter sent on February 28 to David Denison, President of the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) investment board, Probe International Executive Director Patricia Adams has called on the CPP to provide more information on investments it has made on behalf of all working Canadians in Chile’s main electricity provider, Transelec.
(February 11, 2009) We had just landed after a 45 minute flight on LAN Chile from Puerto Montt at the Balmaceda airport outside the city of Coyhaique in the Patagonia. We were riding in an airport shuttle to central Coyhaique when we came around a bend to find a police car following a long line of horses. This was the Patagonia sin Represas horseback protest that has been making its way across the Patagonia for several weeks in an attempt to draw national and international attention to the proposed Dams that will be built in Southern Chile.
(February 5, 2009) According to recent Indian press reports, the country’s Central Bureau of Investigation has arraigned Claus Trendl, a senior vice president with Canada’s SNC-Lavalin, for the engineering giant’s role in a contract to overhaul three hydro-electric dams in the southwestern state of Kerala. It is alleged that irregularities occurred in the awarding of the contract and that Lavalin benefited from undue favour.
Patricia Adams
Brady Yauch
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
Lisa Peryman
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