Ecobreves – MEXICO: Environmentalists Repudiate Electricity Project

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

MEXICO CITY, May 5 2008 (IPS) - Mexico's Federal Electricity Commission, CFE, has divided a fishing community with promises and food in the Cuyutlán lagoon, in the western state of Colima, to calm criticisms of a planned electricity plant, charge ecologists. “The entire process aimed at authorizing the installation of the plant,” which will run on liquefied gas, had irregularities, like aid handouts for the local residents, Alejandro Olivera, of Greenpeace Mexico, told Tierramérica.

Greenpeace and other environmental groups filed a complaint Apr. 18 against the government's February authorization to CFE to build the plant on the shores of the 100-square-kilometer lagoon located close to the Pacific Ocean.

According to environmentalists, the energy plant would hurt Cuyutlán's rich biodiversity, where some 100 fisherfolk make their livelihood.