On Monday, May 9, the Environmental Evaluation Commission, meeting in Coyhaique, a city in the Chilean Patagonia, and composed of 12 appointed officials in President Sebastian Pinera's government, approved the hydroelectric plant Hidroaysen, [es] a merger between Spanish-Italian Endesa and the Chilean Colbun. The project includes the construction and operation of 5 dams, two in Baker River and three in Pascua River located in the Aisén region in the remote south of Patagonia, Chile and it has an estimated value of 3.2 billion worth of investments. Where the Baker and Nef rivers meet. Image by Flickr user jpgarnham (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). This video tells us a little about what the project is about: Video: Hidroaysen is a hydroelectric project that will build and operate five dams in the Chilean Patagonia, two in the Baker River and three in de Pascua River, flooding 5910 hectares equivalent to the surface of the Manhattan Island in New York. To provide energy to Santiago and new mining projects in the north of the country, Hidroaysen is looking to install 3800 towers, each 60 mts. tall, along 2000 kms. becoming the most lengthy electric wiring in the world. It would join the interconnected central system at the Lo Prado Bridge, thus going through half of one of the longest countries in the world. The project was approved by 11 votes in favour and one against in the midst of a tense atmosphere marked by a protest of about 1,000 people outside the Coyhaique City Hall, where the voting took place. Pese a las 11 mil observaciones ciudadanas presentadas, las denuncias de que informes de los organismos técnicos que revisaron el proyecto fueron cambiados y la inhabilidad de cuatro ministerios, el apoyo explícito del gobierno de Sebastián Piñera y de los medios masivos, fue aprobado en medio de un fuerte contingente policial el proyecto de Hidroaysén. […] According to the observations of the online chilean news site El Ciudadano [es]. To which the site radio.uchile.cl [es] added: La iniciativa energética estaba altamente cuestionada por una serie de irregularidades que se presentaron durante su tramitación como cambios sorpresivos y sin fundamento de los servicios técnicos. Sus detractores además denunciaron un sistemático lobby de las empresas Endesa y Colbún respaldado por el Gobierno para presionar por la aprobación de este proyecto.” The “for” and “against” stances vary in reasoning. However, the majority of the population is against the construction. On Twitter, the Carbon footprint consultancy @carboambiente commented: Encuestas online indican que #NOaHidroaysen:@Emol 53%;@laterceracom 66%;@nacioncl 79%; @PublimetroChile 81% que más quieren!!! Tomas Mosciatti, journalist from Bio Bio Radio explains the reasons for rejecting the Hydroaysen project to CNN Chile: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ruls0enMHvE&feature=player_embedded Video: Tomas Masciatti professes that in his personal opinion, besides it not being environmentally friendly to proceed with this project, there are also very important considerations that were not taken before going ahead with what he calls the biggest project ever undertaken in Chile. He outlines the fact that Chile has no energy policy, that things have not been put in place when taxation, the cable system or consumer's rights are concerned. He also stresses that Chile is not facing such a grave energy crisis to have to resort to making a decision so quickly as this one was made. He also mentions political implications, such as Chile producing a surplus of energy (and contamination) to be later sold to Argentina. Other problems he says are corruption within the authorities, imperialism and a monopoly created when Hydroaysen rules the energy sector with a whopping 80% production in the entire market. Masciatti says that the residents of Aysen will get no benefit whatsoever from this project since all the energy will be channeled to Santiago, plus they will pay the same rates as the people of Santiago, which isn't fair to them at all. There have been various publications that contain the disapproval of the project. Among them, there is an ecological group called Verdeseo that published “7 Reasons for a Patagonia without Dams” [es]. Also, Pablo Astudillo of online community El Quinto Poder, wrote “7 Reflections before the eventual approval or rejection of the Hydroaysen” [es], which says, in a nutshell: Protest for a Patagonia Without Dams. Image by Flickr user International Rivers (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) 1. La hidroelectricidad NO es energía limpia. 2. Duplicar la energía no ayuda a superar la pobreza. 3. Duplicar la energía tampoco asegura el bienestar económico. 4. Las energías renovables no convencionales (ERNC) sí son una opción. 5. Las represas no garantizan energía más barata. 6.