March

Business News Americas-English
March 24, 2003
NGOs; Iglesias Admits Camisea "Problematic"

Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) president Enrique Iglesias has admitted that Peru's Camisea gas project is "problematic and controversial," environmental organizations Friends of the Earth and Amazon Watch said in a press release.

Non-governmental organizations, including Amazon Watch and Friends of the Earth, met with Iglesias at the IDB's annual meeting in Milan on Saturday, to inform him that the project is having a negative impact on the environment and indigenous peoples.

According to the press release, Iglesias said that the IDB loan for Camisea is not guaranteed. and he acknowledged potential financial risks.

Iglesias also pledged to meet with Peruvian indigenous organizations in the near future to discuss their concerns, the statement said.

"Now is the time for the IDB to reject financing for Camisea and refuse public taxpayer support for projects that pose danger to people's lives and destroy the environment," representatives of Friends of the Earth, Amazon Watch and the Institute for Policy Studies said in a joint statement after the meeting.

USA Today
March 21, 2003
Some Oil Fields Begin to Burn U.S. Officials Call Torchings Criminal Acts; Environmental, Fiscal Damage Hard to Calculate
By: Tom Kenworthy and James Cox

During the 1991 Gulf War, when Iraq spilled 6 million to 8 million barrels of oil into the Persian Gulf and set afire almost 700 Kuwaiti oil wells, there were widespread predictions of a worldwide environmental disaster.

Brent Blackwelder, president of the environmental group Friends of the Earth, organized a scientific mission to the Gulf in June 1991. The war, he says, produced the largest ever oil spills on land, sea and in the air. And while worst fears didn't come true, for Kuwait it was "a human and environmental disaster."

Associated Press Worldstream
March 20, 2003
Activists at International Water Forum Protest Privatization

Activists demonstrated Friday at an international conference on water to protest proposals that would give a bigger role to the private sector in providing water and sanitation services.

The demonstration came two days before ministers at the one-week World Water Forum in the western city of Kyoto were scheduled to issue a plan outlining steps to reduce global inequalities in access to water.

"We want to make sure that there is a basic right to water," said one of the demonstrators, Leslie Fields with the environmental group Friends of the Earth. "Municipalities and governments should provide these basic services."

United Press International
March 8, 2003
Washington D.C. Grand Prix Canceled

The nation's capital will not see -- and importantly to nearby residents, not hear -- the Washington Grand Prix this year, District of Columbia officials said Saturday.

The race that drew an estimated 70,000 spectators over three days last year, was scheduled to return in late June to its purpose-built racetrack in the parking lot of Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium. " District residents are breathing a sign of relief and taking out their ear plugs," said Chris Weiss, director of Friends of the Earth's D.C. Environmental Network.

Gannett News Service
March 04, 2003
Congress takes another stab at energy legislation
By Doug Abrahms

WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers will take another stab at passing widespread energy legislation as heating bills soar and gasoline nears $ 2 a gallon in some states.

House Republicans are circulating a draft bill that would revamp the nation's electric grid, increase spending on hydrogen-power research and streamline the process to build a natural gas pipeline in Alaska.

"Now you have a Republican-controlled Senate with a majority that is hostile to energy-efficiency programs," said Erich Pica, a Friends of the Earth spokesman. "I think as long as this administration is in office, energy and energy development will be a major environmental issue."

Last year's energy bill failed in part because it contained everything from increased tax credits on oil wells to mandating more ethanol in gasoline, restructuring the nation's energy grid and requiring utilities to use a minimum amount of eco-friendly power. The House and Senate each passed their own energy legislation last year, but they failed to reach a compromise.

The race that drew an estimated 70,000 spectators over three days last year, was scheduled to return in late June to its purpose-built racetrack in the parking lot of Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium.

"District residents are breathing a sigh of relief and taking out their ear plugs," Chris Weiss, director of Friends of the Earth's D.C. Environmental Network, said.

The race had been opposed by many of those who live closest to it in the Kingman Park area of Northeast Washington as well as by some environmental groups.