Chile torn over using Patagonia to create energy

Environmentalists are fiercely opposed to a scheme for four hydroelectric dams to power growth, claiming that large dams are not the answer, and that they will ruin the area’s tourism potential.

Chile has had a problem since Argentina’s energy shortages forced it in 2004 to start cutting natural gas exports to its neighbour, which relies on Argentine gas for a third of its electricity generation. Consequently, Chile believes it must diversify sources and increase autonomy to ensure security in supply and price.
“How can we protect our natural beauty and not leave it in the hands of those who want to exploit it in a way which will only benefit big business?” asks a local priest, Father Bernardino Sanello, in Cochrane, an isolated town of 2,800 people near the sites of two of the four dams.

“For me, Endesa is like Satan,” says Marcos Diaz, who founded the Defenders of the Spirit of Patagonia to put a stop to the hydroelectric project. “This is a struggle between good and evil.”

FTD