Mar 11 2010

Iceland´s Cheap Energy Prices Finally Revealed

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Century's Grundartangi SmelterThroughout the years, Saving Iceland has been pointing out that the common household on Iceland would end up paying the bill for the aluminium factories. The secrecy that shrouds the contracts between Landsvirkjun (the National Energy Company) and the aluminium companies shouts corruption and even more voices have been questioning the deals publicly and pressing on for those numbers to be revealed.

On the 9th of March, RUV (Icelandic National Broadcast Association) revealed a strictly confidential report the news channel has in their hands. The report, which was made for Norðurál (Century Aluminum) and foreign banks by the consulation office Hatch, shows the different costs of the industry, including the energy price.

That price of the KWh is bound to the price of each ton of aluminium, a 0.00000001% of the selling price. That means that while the price of aluminum was 1400$ a ton, Norðurál was paying 1,4 cents per KWh, making it the cheapest in Europe and leaving Landsvirkjun’s profit from the energy they sell to them dependant on the unstable aluminum price.
This price also means that Norðurál is paying a fourth of what aluminum companies in Europe are paying for their energy and on top of that, only a meager fifth of what the local population has to pay for their private energy usage.

Since the news came out, Landsvirkjun has announced they will be revealing their prices to the aluminium industry during the middle of next month.

Previously, Alain Belda, presdient of Alcoa, had revealed their energy bill in Iceland in a speech he held in Brazil. From figures he cited there people could calculate that it was the lowest energy price for an aluminium company anywhere in the world.

Keep checking this site for updates on these news.

Feb 22 2010

Mining and Refinery Projects Devastate Communities in India

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From Amnesty International, February 2010

vedanta-refinery-in-orissa

Plans to mine bauxite in the Niyamgiri Hills in the Indian state of Orissa threaten the very existence of the Dongria Kondh – an indigenous community that has lived on and around the hills for centuries.

The Dongria Kondh depend entirely on the hills for their food, water, livelihoods and cultural identity. They consider the Niyamgiri Hills as sacred.

The proposed mine could have grave repercussions for their human rights to water, food, health, work and other rights as an Indigenous community in respect of their traditional lands. International law requires that governments seek their free, prior informed consent before beginning such projects.

In Lanjigarh, at the foot of the Niyamgiri Hills, air and water pollution from an alumina refinery run by Vedanta Aluminium are threatening the health and well-being of local communities.

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Feb 08 2010

Plan to Dam Þjórsá River Declined

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Urriðafoss Waterfall in Þjórsá
Svandís Svavarsdóttir, Minister of Environment, recently declined land-use plans made by the parishes of Flóahreppur and Skeiða- and Gnúpverjahreppur at the request of Landsvirkjun (National Energy Company), which had also paid for the preperations to the changes in the plans. The minister declined the land-use plans on the grounds that according to Icelandic law, such plan changes are to be paid for by the communities themselves, and any third-party involvement in the costs is illegal.

Of course the governmental opposition parties and their usual gang of industrial lobbyists are furious over the ruling, and critisice it heavily, displaying reactions the environmental minister described as being similar to allergic reactions. Amongst other things they accuse her of hindering those who are trying to build up work in the energy and industry sectors and blocking the creation of new jobs in a country they claim is ravaged by unemployment (approximately 8,6% at last count).

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Jan 29 2010

No Joint Assessment Needed in Reykjanes

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Power LinesIn September 2009, the Ministry of Environment overruled the Planning Agency’s verdic which stated that no joint Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is needed for the S-West Power Grid and the industry that it’s going to be providing for. The case was sent back to the Planning Agency for a more substansial treatment.

This ruling caused uproar amongst pro-indistrialists, who went so far as to claiming that Svandís Svavarsdóttir, the minister of environment, was guilty of both treason and terrorism against the people og Reykjanes, especially all the unemployed. All the medias jumped on the wagon with the industrialists, citing union bosses worrying about the unemployment rate, economists painting a bleak picture of a bankrupt future and interviews with unemplyed people worrying about their mortages. And all of it was Svandís’s fault.

Yesterday the Ministry of Environment confirmed the Planning Agency’s second verdict. The verdict’s the same, no joint EIA is needed for the projects on the SW peninsular. This means that all the balls are in the industrialists court now and the media is backing them up with quotes and interviews with indistrial workers and union bosses dreaming of a better future now that the way has been paved for projects like the enlargement of the Reykjanes Power Plant, Bitra Power Plant, Hverahlíða Power Plant, various data storages and an aluminium smelter and a silicon factory in Helguvík.

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Jan 28 2010

Friðrik Sophusson Still at Large

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The professional environmental saboteur, Friðrik Sophusson, former president of Landsvirkjun (Icelandic National Energy Company) and before that the financial minister under the Independent Party’s reign of terror, has now become head of the board of directors of Íslandsbanki, one of the government owned banks since the collapse of the bank system in 2008. The bank is now mostly in the hands of it’s creditors and the board of directors, which has been expanded to 7 members, are now mostly foreign experts in the financial sector.

Friðrik Sophusson, director of Landsvirkjun

Íslandsbanki also owns majority in the geothermal energy company Geysir Green Energy and controls all of it’s board members. Geysir Green Energy, in return, owns a majority stake in HS Orka (Southern Peninsula Geothermal Energy Company), or 57,4% stock after acquiring 34% stock from the municipality of Reykjanes Town and selling 8,6% to the Canadian Magma Energy Corp.

So Sophussons years in meddling with Icelands resources and energy companies are obviously far from over, and now he’s got his dirty fingers down in the money jar as well, where he can apply the needed pressure on these companies, owned by his bank, to further his dream of a totally harnessed Iceland.

Jan 28 2010

Greenwashing Hydropower

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by Aviva Imhof & Guy R. Lanza

DamBig dams have a serious record of social and environmental destruction, and there are many alternatives. So why are they still being built?

On a hot May day, a peasant farmer named Bounsouk looks out across the vast expanse of water before him, the 450-square-kilometer reservoir behind the new Nam Theun 2 dam in Laos. At the bottom of the reservoir is the land where he once lived, grew rice, grazed buffalo, and collected forest fruits, berries, and medicinal plants and spices. Now there is just water, water everywhere.

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Jan 15 2010

Green is the New Spectacle

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Society of the Spectacle
By Jason Slade
Originally published in the Nor easter

The Spectacle

Environmental issues can oftentimes be very complex. Some issues directly relate to climate change, and some do not. However, it is very important to connect the dots between issues because almost all environmental problems are caused, at their base, by capitalist expansion, commodification and privatization. Corporations have used the climate crisis and growing public concern about environmental issues to their advantage. They have learned to use the rhetoric of environmentalism to justify extremely oppressive projects whose sole purpose is to increase their power and to continue the cycle of production and consumption. Incredibly destructive projects, such as hydrofracture natural gas extraction in Upstate New York, are marketed as clean. This absurd spectacle must be stopped.

In Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle, he writes, “The spectacle presents itself simultaneously as all of society, as part of society, and as instrument of unification … The spectacle grasped in its totality is both the result and the project of the existing mode of production. It is not a supplement to the real world, an additional decoration. It is the heart of the unrealism of the real society. In all its specific forms, as information or propaganda, as advertisement or direct entertainment consumption, the spectacle is the present model of socially dominant life … It is the sun which never sets over the empire of modern passivity. It covers the entire surface of the world and bathes endlessly in its own glory.” And now the light of that sun is green. The green spectacle is confronting the climate crisis with hollow solutions presented to us in a pleasant, prefabricated package that can be bought if we can afford them and allow us to pollute in good conscience. In an absurd twist, these corporate false solutions cause the poor, and those who resist these schemes, to be blamed for destroying the planet. “It is not the oil companies who are to blame for climate change, but the poor who do not buy carbon offsets when they travel.” Thus, the climate crisis becomes another way to make money and increase corporate power. Read More

Dec 30 2009

Vietnam’s Mega Bauxite Mine: A Social and Ecological Disaster

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Al Jazeera has obtained the first footage of a massive bauxite mining project in central Vietnam which has created one of the biggest civil protest movements the country has ever seen. Vietnamese media have been banned from reporting on the proposed mine, which critics say will create major environmental damage, for little economic benefit.

Vietnam holds the third largest bauxite reserves worldwide and is increasingly subject to China’s growing desire for natural resources through its controlling diplomatic relationship with Vietnam. The $460 million project, which has already begun, is being carried out by Chinalco, a chinese aluminium company who own 10% shares in Rio Tinto, and Vinacomin, the Vietnamese partner.

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Dec 29 2009

Greenland’s Energy and Mineral Extraction Master-plan Revealed

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As Greenland awakes from over 700 years of colonisation and heavy subsidisation by Denmark, it’s home rule government are promoting the development of huge hydro-power for aluminium smelters, and all the country’s other mineral and energy resources as a desperate measure to sustain their economy. The language of fear and imminent economic collapse used in the Prime Minister’s plan (below) is strongly reminiscent of the pro heavy-industry strategy in Iceland in the run up to the Kárahnjúkar dam, and right up to today.

The article attempts to justify aluminium production and other energy intensive extractive industries, claiming that using Greenland’s ‘green’ hydro energy will prevent ‘dirty’ emissions for the inevitable production of aluminium elsewhere. This is certainly the take of Alcoa who are ever keen to avoid carbon taxes, and claim that:
‘We have before us a wonderful opportunity to deliver mutual benefit to the people of Greenland and to Alcoa as we continue to work toward our common objective of building a world-class, sustainable aluminum smelter, powered by renewable hydroelectric energy in Greenland.’
The experience of Icelandic mega-hydro, as well as numerous studies have revealed this argument to be nothing but ‘greenwash’- a selling point for Alcoa, while carbon emissions, fluoride pollution, indigenous destruction, and weapons manufacture associated with aluminium production continue to rise unabated.
Plans for an aluminium smelter in Greenland have been reported since 2007, originally proposed by Norsk Hydro. Alcoa quickly stepped in and a Memorandum of Understanding was signed in May 2007 for a smelter in the town of Nuuk, Sisimiut or Maniitsoq. The proposed smelter will begin at 350,000 tonnes (slightly larger than the enormous Fjardaal in Iceland) and will require 650 MW of energy from 2 dams, connected to the smelter by 240 km of powerlines. Public consultations are currently in progress with the next round in January 2010, with plans to have the smelter online by 2016.
In 2008 a contact in Greenland reported that most people there are in favour of the project, and with the urgent need for financial independence as they break away from Danish rule, this may well be the case. Greenland is geographically and politically isolated and lacks even the level of critique and information which Icelanders had in the run up to Karahnjukar, let alone the support of large NGO’s for the tiny environmental group who are trying to single-handedly address the many issues with the smelters and other developments there. Read More

Dec 20 2009

Iceland’s Embassy in Copenhagen Attacked: “Green Energy – Pure Lies”

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is1
The press release and photos here below appeared on the Danish Indymedia site last Wednesday, December 16th:

Early in the morning of Wednesday the 16th of december the Icelandic embassy in Copenhagen was attacked. A security camera was disabled with spray paint, the Icelandic coat of arms was defaced in the same way, green paint was splashed on the front of the house and on the front door, in large letters, “Green energy – pure lies” and “Nature Killers” was sprayed amongst other thing’s.

The Icelandic government boasts of it’s prowess in the production of “green” energy but there is no such thing as green energy, especially if it is then used for heavy industry. “Green” energy production is just as destructive to our environment as other energy production, the effects are just better hidden. The earth’s ecosystems are suffering because of mankinds actions, this must end.

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