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Sunday, July 20, 2008

 

Coal carves a place in the future of global energy/Los Angeles Times

Coal mine
El Cerrejon
THE SOURCE: At Colombia’s El Cerrejon mine, a fleet of electric shovels runs around the clock to extract the coal that helps meet energy demands in Chile, the Netherlands and elsewhere.
As the price of oil and natural gas soars, many customers are looking to coal as an alternative fuel. That means a boon for suppliers -- and a potential bane for the environment.
By Chris Kraul, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 20, 2008
ALBANIA, COLOMBIA -- Its gray and black walls stretching to infinity, Latin America's largest coal mine resembles a miniature Grand Canyon.

The big difference is that the timeless hand of nature has not carved out El Cerrejon mine. Booming global demand has.

A fleet of electric shovels runs 24 hours a day scooping up 50 tons of coal at a swipe. The rock is loaded onto 100-car trains that roll nine times a day to a private Caribbean port, where it is placed on cargo ships that deliver it to power plants in Chile, the Netherlands, Japan, the United States' Eastern Seaboard and elsewhere.

As the global price of oil and natural gas soars, some customers are taking a new look at other fuels -- including coal. And countries such as China and India, whose demand is contributing to the price of petroleum, need even more energy. Besides petroleum products, they are buying vast amounts of coal, as well.

The worldwide demand for oil has its own set of environmental consequences -- drilling in pristine areas where it previously was uneconomical and continued emission of greenhouse gases. But environmentalists warn that renewed reliance on coal takes the threat to another level.

"Growing coal use threatens nothing less than the end of civilization as we know it," said Henry Henderson, the Chicago-based Midwest director of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Low in acid-rain-causing sulfur and cheap to produce, Colombia's coal has always been coveted. These days, El Cerrejon and half a dozen other major mines in the region are booming. Energy & Mines Minister Hernan Martinez says Colombia's shipments will rise to 80 million tons this year, 10% more than last year and double the amount just five years ago.

The value of Colombia's coal exports in 2008 will surpass $5 billion, up 40% from last year and 10 times what it was six years ago, a reflection of the increased price. Coal has more than doubled in price to $100 a ton in a year.

China added more coal-burning power plants in 2007 than Britain has built in its history, said Gerard McCloskey, a coal market specialist with Cambridge Energy Research Associates in London. A few years ago, China was exporting the equivalent of Colombia's current annual exports. But by next year, the U.S. Department of Energy forecasts, it will become a net importer.

Similarly, Russia and Poland are keeping much of the coal they once exported. Prices have also been driven up by flooded mines in Australia and a hike in global shipping rates.

Still, generating energy from coal costs a third as much as from natural gas in Japan, and half to two-thirds as much in Britain, McCloskey said.

According to John Dean, coal energy consultant with Global Insight, a research firm in Frederick, Md., those favorable economics have persuaded several U.S. utilities to build new or expand coal-fired power plants.

Probably the largest project is Duke Energy's two coal-fired generation plants in Cliffside, N.C., which by 2012 will produce 1,600 megawatts of energy -- more than the output of the San Onofre nuclear power plant near San Clemente.

By 2030, about 54% of all U.S. electric power will be coal-fired, up from the current 48%, according to the National Mining Assn., a Washington-based trade group. Environmentalists and consumer advocates warn of the consequences.

Customers are beginning to see higher electric bills. Much more pain is on the way, according to U.S. Department of Energy economist Michael Mellish. "Coal prices have taken off with a vengeance and electricity prices will spike up if they stick," Mellish said.

Of longer-term concern are the effects on climate change. Coal-fired power generation and manufacturing is the leading source of carbon dioxide and methane emissions, which scientists agree are the leading contributors to the "greenhouse effect" and global warming.

Two environmental advocacy groups, Greenpeace and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), have called for a moratorium on new coal-fired plants until a feasible means of mitigating carbon dioxide emissions is in place.

One such method, called "carbon capture and sequestering," which recycles carbon dioxide from smokestacks for use or storage underground, has raised hopes. But the National Mining Assn. says its practical application is 12 to 15 years away.

"We recognize coal is a reality to which you can't simply say no," said the NRDC'S Henderson. "But you have the issue of getting coal right, or of many, many other things going wrong."

Kate Smolski, legislative coordinator with Greenpeace in Washington, said that although all fossil fuels contribute to global warming, coal is the "dirtiest, emitting double the carbon dioxide per energy unit produced, compared with natural gas."

A mid-sized coal mine that produces 500 megawatts of energy, the amount consumed by 500,000 families, will churn out as much carbon dioxide a year as half a million cars, according to the NRDC.

Located in sparsely populated northern Colombia, the El Cerrejon mine, rail line and port were built in the late 1970s by Exxon according to U.S. standards. El Cerrejon has generally been credited with being environmentally kind, as coal mines go. (ExxonMobil sold the mine in 2002 to a partnership of Australia's BHP Billiton and two London-based firms, Anglo American and Xstrata.)

The owners say they are making an effort to reclaim the areas already stripped by planting trees and pasture, predicting that they will be habitable decades from now when the coal is gone.

But other areas of Colombia, particularly the historic port city of Santa Marta and its surrounding beach areas, are suffering spills and barge sinkings, which have damaged fishing and tourism along the country's Caribbean coast. The government is requiring all mines to use direct loading systems like El Cerrejon's by 2010, but some in the industry say the goal is unrealistic.

For now, Colombia is reaping a windfall. Known for legal exports such as coffee, bananas and oil as well as illegal tonnage of cocaine, it has quietly become a world player in coal, ranking fourth among exporters, behind Indonesia, Australia and Russia.

El Cerrejon's owners are considering investing $600 million in a second docking facility at Puerto Bolivar and a major expansion of its railroad line.

The Colombian government is sharing the wealth. El Cerrejon will pay royalties totaling $380 million to the government this year.

"The industry invested billions of dollars in an area of Colombia where there was once nothing, and it's paid off," Martinez said.

chris.kraul@latimes.com

Saturday, July 19, 2008

 

from Avi Chomsky:


See details below. Drummond workers are asking for our support. Please contact to Garry Drummond (email, address, and phone below) with a copy to the union, asking the Company to negotiate fairly and in good faith with the union.

Avi




Drummond Co., Inc.
P.O. Box 10246
Birmingham, Alabama 35202

Phone: (205) 945-6300

info@drummondco.com

Please send a copy to:

sintramienergeticanacional@gmail.com



UPDATE 2-Drummond Colombia coal mine workers go on strike

Thu Jul 17, 2008 3:38pm BST

BOGOTA, July 17 (Reuters) - Workers at U.S. coal company Drummond's Pribbenow mine located in northern Colombia have gone on strike after a breakdown in contract talks, a union official said on Thursday.

The open-pit mine produces about 2 million tonnes of coal per month, according to privately owned Drummond, which confirmed that operations have been shut down by the work stoppage.

"The mine is paralyzed," said Joaquin Romero, president of the Funtraenergetica labor organization which represents Pribbenow's 3,500 workers.

"We hope to restart talks in the days to come," Romero said.

The union is negotiating a two-year contract. Talks have bogged down over miners' demands for higher pay and better employment security, according to Romero, who said 100 workers were fired from the mine last year.

Drummond is a family-run business based in Birmingham, Alabama, headed by Garry Neil Drummond.

The price of Colombian coal at the Bolivar export terminal CO-FOBPBL-CO has more than tripled since the start of 2007, rising $123.80 to $174.50 a tonne, boosted by strong demand growth for coal in China and other emerging markets. (Reporting by Hugh Bronstein, editing by Matthew Lewis)

---

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

 
from Avi Chomsky:


The Boston Globe published two letters to the editor today about Marc Grossman's ridiculous pro-FTA op-ed last week. One by me, one by Pat Bonner of Witness for Peace Southwest, who went on our coal delegation in 2006--
Avi


FREE TRADE WITH COLOMBIA

Pact is perfect - for US corporations

July 16, 2008

MARC GROSSMAN ("Opening up trade with Colombia," Op-ed, July 10) says that this is "the perfect time" to pass the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, because the struggle for democracy in Colombia "requires creating jobs, enhancing human rights, and protecting labor leaders." Sure it does, but will the FTA accomplish this?

A vast array of Colombian social organizations, including human rights and environmental groups, labor unions, and indigenous, Afro-Colombian, and peasant organizations, believe it will do exactly the opposite. They are vocally and actively opposing the FTA because, as Grossman suggests, it will benefit "American businesses, farmers, ranchers" - at the expense of Colombians.

The FTA would dump cheap, subsidized US grains on Colombia, displacing small Colombian farmers. It would grant further rights and privileges to US corporations investing in Colombia, preventing local and national institutions from protecting their own resources, environment, and people.

Grossman is a vice chairman of the Cohen Group, whose mission, according to its website, is "to provide enterprises large and small the help they need to compete and succeed in the global marketplace."

That's what the Colombia FTA is designed to accomplish: to help US businesses. It's fine if that's what Grossman wants to do - that's his job. But he shouldn't try to fool us into thinking that what is good for US corporations is going to be good for Colombia.

AVI CHOMSKY
Salem
The writer is professor of history and coordinator of Latin American studies at Salem Sate College.

FREE TRADE WITH COLOMBIA

For farmers, it's NAFTA, revisited

July 16, 2008

IN HIS July 10 op-ed about trade with Colombia, Marc Grossman confuses two unrelated issues. The military operation that freed Ingrid Betancourt and her companions was brilliant. But the US-Colombia trade agreement remains bad for the same reasons it has always been bad.

The US labor movement is not alone in opposing the trade deal. More than 150 Colombian organizations, including national unions, farmers associations, ethnic minorities, and others, sent a letter to US congressional leaders last year. In that letter, they asked Congress to reject the treaty. Colombian farmers know the trade deal will wipe out their farms just as the North American Free Trade Agreement has done in Mexico.

PATRICK BONNER
South Gate, Calif.

---

Friday, July 04, 2008

 

North Shore Labor Council/Local 201 in Colombia

Thursday, July 3, 2008 1:49 PM EDT
Human rights activists examine crops fumigated in Colombia, the result of a U.S. policy to stymie the cocaine industry.

Columbia trip opened eyes of two Lynn labor activists

By David Liscio / The Daily Item

LYNN - Two North Shore labor activists on a June fact-finding trip to Colombia were surprised by the rampant U.S.-backed fumigation of coca plants, a policy that removes thousands of acres from the country's cocaine industry but also kills healthy coffee crops.

Lynn native Tom O'Shea, a General Electric Co. employee and member of IUE-CWA Local 201, and Rosa Blumenfeld of Somerville, an organizer for the Lynn-based North Shore Labor Council, visited with human rights advocates, small farmers, labor leaders, lawyers, unionists and the indigenous people of Colombia.

O'Shea spent time with a small farmers' coffee collective in the southwestern region of Colombia called Cauca. "Much like the indigenous people, these farmers have been under fire from a Colombian/U.S. policy known as Plan Colombia," he said, referring to a U.S. initiative that aims to prepare Colombia for a free-trade agreement.

According to O'Shea, part of Plan Colombia is to eliminate the illegal cocaine drug trade by fumigating the coca crop. "The fumigating process is done by spraying a concentrated form of the chemical we know as Round Up on the coca plants," he said. "In the past seven years, thousands of acres of coca have been eliminated by fumigation, but in the process they have also eliminated thousands of acres of legitimate crops, mainly coffee. The coffee farmers we talked to told us how the chemicals were poisoning them, their children and their land. They asked us to talk to our congressmen and senators and have them stop the fumigations."

The farmers hope to grow certified organic coffee, a viable crop and can lead them out of poverty and subsistence living.

"Several farmers we heard from told us how they had worked for years to achieve organic status only to get fumigated and loose everything," said O'Shea, who decided to visit Central America to see firsthand the effects of U.S. policy. "Once the land has been fumigated it takes three years for it to recover. There has to be a better solution than fumigation."

While O'Shea, 48, and Blumenfeld, 21, were in Colombia, a U.S. report was released that indicated the country's coca crop was 27 percent larger than the year before. "Obviously the policy of fumigation is not working," O'Shea said.

Blumenfeld, a native of Vancouver, Canada, whose mother, Erma, was born in Bogota, started working with the North Shore Labor Council in September 2006 and has since emerged as a lead organizer. She has been focused on injustices in Colombia and other regions where organized labor makes few inroads and the poor often suffer from the decisions made by government and industry.

Blumenfeld became involved last year with raising awareness of mining operations in Colombia that scar the land and harm those living nearby.

"This trip was a series of educational experiences, with very full days spent hearing testimony from indigenous people, lawyers' collectives, unionists, campesinos (small farmers), and agricultural cooperatives in Bogota, the capital, and in the southwest department of Cauca," she said. "We were part of a group of 21 people from Witness for Peace, a politically-independent, grassroots organization that's committed to nonviolence."

Blumenfeld said the organization's mission is to support peace, justice and sustainable economies by changing U.S. policies and corporate practices wherever they contribute to poverty and oppression in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The pair met with indigenous leaders representing those who have occupied the same tracts of land the past 10,000 years. "Much like the native Americans in the U.S., these indigenous people hold the land and water in high regard. Their goal is to maintain their traditions by being stewards of the land," O'Shea said. "To them, that means farming their traditional crops, crops they have grown for centuries, co-existing with nature and living in harmony."

O'Shea said Colombia is a desirable location given its stable climate, proximity to the Equator, and 12 hours of daylight most of the year.

"It's not surprising that multi-national agricultural corporations want what Colombia has to offer," he said, noting the buzzword these days is biofuel. "One plant that is being processed for that purpose is the oil palm, which grows very well in Colombia. The corporations want to plant as much oil palm as they can. The indigenous people want to stay on land they have occupied for thousands of years and grow their traditional crops. This is where the rub comes in. The government of Colombia with the help of the U.S. favors the multi-national corporations."

The result is a battle over land. People are being killed. The Colombian government uses its military to pressure indigenous people from their land. The natives want to tell their story to representatives of the U.S. government but they're uncertain whether anyone is willing to listen.

While in Colombia, O'Shea met a local woman who carries a wooden staff, an ancestral custom symbolic of a group leader. "As a weapon it could never stand up to an M-16, but her faith in the spirit and in humankind made that staff seem invincible," he said. "I was humbled by her beliefs."






(

 

Killings Continue--Tell Congress to Cut Military Aid to Colombia, Update on Peace Community Massacre

In this email:
Breaking News--FARC Hostages Freed
With abuses by the Colombian military on the rise, we need to cut military aid NOW
Peace Community Massacre Update--Colombian Military--and an SOA Graduate--Implicated
Join a delegation to Colombia
Breaking News--Hostages Freed
On July 2 the Colombian Army freed 15 hostages being held by the FARC, including three U.S. Defense Department contractors, a former presidential candidate and 11 members of the Colombian police and military. Read the latest news here.
Action Alert: Tell Congress to Cut Military Aid to Colombia

Let's continue our momentum. With abuses by the Colombian military on the rise, we need to cut military aid NOW.

As you will recall, last year the Congress made many positive changes in U.S. policy towards Colombia - changes that couldn't have been made without committed activists like you picking up the phone, demanding your voice be heard. Now the foreign aid subcommittees in the House and Senate are set to work on legislation that includes military aid to Colombia in mid-July.
2007 Days of Prayer and ActionIt's time to call your representative and senators and urge them to stand by Colombia's victims of violence by ending military aid. While overall killings may be down from their historic highs in Colombia, abuses committed by the U.S.-backed Colombian armed forces are actually on the rise. Colombian human rights groups documented 955 extrajudicial killings committed by the armed forces between July 2002 and June 2007, a 65% increase over the previous five year period. Our partners report 128 killings by the armed forces just in the first six months of 2007. Internal displacement is also once again on the rise in Colombia. CODHES, the primary institution tracking internal displacement, reports that 305,966 people were displaced last year, a 27% increase over 2006. Call to ActionCall the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 today to be connected to your representative or senators. When you call, ask to speak to their foreign policy aide. Here is a sample call script: "I am a constituent calling to encourage Rep./Senator ____________ to ensure that this year's foreign aid bill stands by Colombia's victims of violence. Last year, the Congress moved U.S. policy in the right direction by reducing military aid. Now, with credible reports linking the Colombian military to extrajudicial killings of civilians, Congress must continue to cut aid to Colombia. Instead of fueling war, the U.S. should be supporting Colombia's victims of violence - small farmers trying to turn away from coca, refugees and the internally displaced, and Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities - in addition to the courageous efforts of human rights defenders. I urge you to share my concerns on U.S. aid to Colombia directly with the chair of the foreign operations subcommittee before the foreign aid bill goes to mark up." Please click here to make a donation to Witness for Peace today to support our Colombia work. After you speak to your congressional representatives, email Jess at jess@witnessforpeace.org to let us know what kind of a response you got.

Peace Community Massacre Update--Colombian Military--and an SOA Graduate--Implicated
For members of the San Jose de Apartadó Peace Community and the national and international organizations that have accompanied the community for years it was no surprise that 100 members of the 17th Brigade and 50 paramilitary soldiers were on a joint patrol in the rural area of San Jose de Apartadó when they massacred three children and five adults on February 21, 2005. Nor was it surprising that Capitan Guillermo Armando Gordilla, at the time of massacre stationed at the 17th Brigade, revealed to the Human Rights wing of the Attorney Generals office that high level commanders, including the General of the 17th Brigade, were not only aware but "had been talking of the operation for some time". Days of Prayer and Action 2007 Peace Community leader Luis Eduardo Guerra remembered. Community leaders have been making the same claim all along, and instead of taking the accusations seriously Colombian government officials, including President Uribe, had attributed the massacre to the FARC and accused community leaders of having connections to Marxist guerrillas. It wasn´t until May 12th, just days after Diego Fernando Murillo alias "Don Berna" admitted to the joint military and paramilitary operation, that Capitan Gordilla gave his testimony even though he had been detained in November of 2007 for alleged participation in the massacre. However, another wrench has been thrown into the already slow investigation. On May 14th "Don Berna" was suddenly extradited to the U.S. to face drug charges along with 13 other top paramilitary bosses. Since the extradition, Capitan Gordilla has decided not to talk. Just after the extradition Capitan Gordilla asked for an indefinite suspension of questioning. Many Human Rights NGOs see the surprise extradition as an effort to silence the paramilitary bosses that began to reveal bits and pieces of their sordid past and the connections between the AUC paramilitary structure and politicians and the Colombian armed forces. Capitan Gordilla not only implicated a number of lower level soldiers but also General Héctor Jaime Fandiño, then the commander of the 17th Brigade and a 1976 graduate of the School of the Americas with training in Small-Unit Infantry Tactics. General Fandiño's second in command and the commander of the Battalion accused of actively participating in the massacre were also named by Capitan Gordilla. Although the 17th Brigade has not directly received U.S. funding in the past years as a result of its atrocious human rights records, clearly U.S. training continues to result in grave human rights violations that can not be tolerated. Capitan Gordilla and "Don Berna's" testimonies are just the first steps to finally clarifying the truth behind the February 21st massacre and many other grave crimes against humanity that have been committed at the hands of a U.S.-funded military supported by an illegal paramilitary structure. It is of fundamental importance that the paramilitary bosses being tried in the U.S. on drug trafficking charges also face trial for the atrocities committed against Colombia's civilian population. For the members of the San Jose de Apartadó Peace Community and tens of thousands of other victims truth, justice and integral reparations-not just the incarceration of a few paramilitary bosses-is necessary to begin to reweave Colombia's torn social fabric.

Thank you for your continued commitment to social justice.
Sincerely,
Witness for Peace Colombia Team
DELEGATIONS TO COLOMBIA
Travel with WFP to Colombia in 2008! Check out our delegation schedule!
delegates
Donate NOW!
Donate Now



Witness for Peace | 3628 12th St NE, 1st Floor | Washington | DC | 20017

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

 

Colombia Vive Fundraising Barbecue/Asado



With special guest Avi Chomsky, professor of history and coordinator of the Latin American Studies program at Salem State College


Sunday, July 20 4:00pm-8:00pm

60 Rice Street, Cambridge


Suggested Donation: $20


Avi Chomsky recently led a Witness for Peace delegation to coal-mining regions of Colombia. The delegation focused on the people behind the coal – the injured workers and displaced communities that have been sacrificed to bring coal to power plants in Massachusetts and elsewhere. Professor Chomsky will report on how those who have been harmed are fighting for their rights and ways that we can help.


Proceeds from the fundraiser will be used to support communities that have been displaced by the coal mines.


To help us plan properly, please make a reservation by Thursday, July 17. Call 978-441-9488.

Colombia Vive is an all-volunteer human rights organization that supports efforts for peace, human rights, and social justice in Colombia. We defend and support civilian groups in Colombia that share our perspective.


We condemn all forms of political violence and therefore do not support any of the armed actors in the Colombian conflict.


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