Rules That Land Is Reserved For Green Use

In an historic decision on Monday, Chile’s Supreme Court stripped environmental approval from energy giant AES Gener’s planned US$500 million coal-fired thermoelectric plant in Campiche (Region V).
 
Construction of the coal-burning center, which was projected to produce 270 Megawatts of electricity annually beginning in 2011, is indefinitely on-hold. The nation’s highest court ruled that the Regional Environmental Commission (COREMA) acted illegally in authorizing construction of the center, which would release hazardous carbon emissions in an area set aside as a “green zone.”

 

With its binding verdict, the Supreme Court upholds the decision of the Region V Appeals Court, which in January 2009 ruled in favor of the case’s appellants, the citizens of Puchuncavi and Quintero. The Environmental Council of Puchuncavi-Quintero submitted the appeal on behalf of the region’s citizens.

“The Constitution of Chile guarantees all citizens the right to live in an environment free from contamination,” said the Court’s decision. “The State is obligated to protect this right, and only with an uncontaminated environment guaranteed can the state permit development.”

The air of the Puchuncavi-Quintero region is, in fact, already contaminated. In 1993 the area around the Campiche construction site was declared a “saturated zone,” contaminated with high levels of PM10 (particulate matter) and SO2 (sulfur-dioxide).

“The decision plays a preventive role,” stated the Supreme Court decision. “The Intercommunal Regulatory Plan of Valparaiso, which regulates the territory on which the thermoelectric center was to be built, set aside the land for green and recreational development only.”

The Supreme Court’s decision to protect the land was met with consternation from officials at AES Gener, which had already begun construction on the US$500 million energy-producing plant.

“In May 2008 we obtained the State’s approval,” said Felipe Cerón, CEO of AES Gener. “We then signed contracts and initiated construction, in order to respond to Chile’s pressing need for efficient and assured energy.”

The center was projected to create 270 Megawatts of electricity, to be streamed into Chile’s Central Power Grid (SIC), amounting to three percent of Chile’s total energy capacity. AES Gener is currently the second largest energy company in Chile, operating 16 generation plants with a 2,559 MW capacity.

In August 2008, the company announced the construction of seven new coal-fired plants totaling US$3 billion, the largest energy-producing endeavor in Chile to date.

AES Gener’s projects, however, have been fiercely fought by Chilean environmental and citizen groups concerned with hazardous emissions.

In August 2008, a group called Citizen Action for the Defense of the Maule Coast (Acción Ciudadana Pro-Defensa de la Costa del Maule) organized against the company’s construction of a 750 MW plant in Los Robles (Patagonia Times, November 3, 2008).

The group collected over 10,000 signatures and staged a major protest at the construction site, arguing that the project would hurt the region’s budding tourism industry, harm local agriculture and fishing industries, and jeopardize the health of area residents.

In February 2009, AES Gener announced the indefinite suspension of the Los Robles plant, as they searched for international financing for the project.

Now, the company must suspend a second project indefinitely. The government will carry out an air quality analysis in the region, then reevaluate whether AES Gener can build the Campiche carbon-emitting plant.

SOURCES:  LA NACION, LA TERCERA, EL MERCURIO
By Sam Crihfield