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Loading ...Minas Moves to Improve Air Quality
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008Synopsis in English: The State Environment Foundation (FEAM) of Minas Gerais (MG) is upgrading its monitoring of air quality in this key Brazilian state. All its automated measurements will be conducted around the clock 365 days a year, with results accessible via the internet soon to be more frequent than daily. This includes new monitoring […]
Closer US-Brazilian Energy Cooperation
Saturday, September 20th, 2008Last month the US Secretary of Energy and Brazil’s Energy Minister met and agreed to intensify cooperation between the two nations on energy-related technology and policy issues. I haven’t seen much about this in the regular press, so I thought I’d briefly flag it here. The two parties agreed “to focus on key areas of […]
Gas Flaring, LAC & Climate Change
Thursday, October 4th, 2007Take a look at the two images to the right. The first is of an offshore platform flaring gas. The second (click to enlarge) is a computer-enhanced satellite photo of gas flaring off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago. Yes, if you use the right technique, you now can document flaring from space. Why is […]
Locomotives Run on Biodiesel
Tuesday, September 25th, 2007Last May the Doce River Valley Company (Companhia Vale do Rio Doce – CVRD) announced plans to use biofuels in its locomotives. I knew that was economically significant news, since in addition to being the world's second largest mining company, CVRD is Brazil's largest logistics operator, owning three railroads — Estrada de Ferro Carajás (EFC), […]
Brazil Sets Norm on Oil Platform Discharges / Nova regra sobre descarte de óleos por plataformas de petróleo
Tuesday, July 10th, 2007Synopsis in English: Brazil’s National Environment Council (CONAMA) has approved a binding resolution setting the rules for the continuous discharge of production water containing oils and greases from oil and natural gas maritime platforms. The platforms have to obey a simple monthly arithmetic average discharge level of 29 milligrams (mg) per liter (l), while the […]
Camisea Revisited
Thursday, July 5th, 2007On 04 June a public hearing at Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) headquarters in Washington, D.C. was held on the recently released audit reports of the controversial Camisea project in Peru. The official IDB summary of the meeting (in Spanish only) is a bit difficult to find on the Bank’s special website on Camisea (unless of […]
A Change in Environmental Licensing of Oil & Gas Projects?
Tuesday, March 6th, 2007Synopsis in English: Just days after the PAC was unveiled, the Environment Ministry’s (MMA) #2 man, Claudio Langone, met with the director of the oil and gas (O&G) industry’s trade association (IBP), João Carlos de Luca, to discuss possible changes in environmental licensing of oil and gas projects. The meeting made some in the environment […]