New govt. committee has 120 days to clear power projects

Brazil's federal government has commissioned a special committee (CGSIE) to propose measures that would remove environmental and legal hurdles that are holding up the conclusion of power generation projects, the government announced Thursday. The committee will have four months to publish a report with full diagnosis of the problems and with proposals to solve those problems. CGSIE has six members - two from the presidential chief of staff's office, two from the mines and energy ministry and two from the environment ministry. They will propose the creation of a specialized technical group as well as invite specialists and private companies to discuss the issues. "This is a way to focus on the problem and find a coordinated solution," a mines and energy spokesperson told BNamericas. The group was created after a meeting between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the mines and energy and environmental ministers and the presidential chief of staff. This is the latest measure taken by the government to solve environmental and legal problems holding up power generation projects. According to the last report by the country's power regulator Aneel, of the 12,400MW in power projects scheduled to come on line this year, 10,000MW are held by some sort of environmental or legal problems. The government also wants to find a solution for 14 strategic projects that are being held up by state environmental authorities throughout Brazil and five projects that still have to be cleared by federal environmental protection agency Ibama. The mines and energy ministry considers the projects essential to increase Brazil's 83GW installed capacity along with power demand in coming years.