dott.Piergiorgio
8/18/2013 11:11:00 AM
Il 18/08/2013 12:42, Keith W ha scritto:
>>>> 'Pay us or we'll drill. We are serious. Not kidding, we'll drill in
>>>> this rainforest'.
>>>
>>> Actually drilling could be the best way to preserve it. The
>>> percentage of land area used is small and once the wells
>>> have been drilled there need be little impact. A 1% tax
>>> on profits would be more than adequate to pay for an
>>> efficient preservation authority to protect the park against
>>> the unrestricted slash and burn agriculture that is the real
>>> threat especially with the absurd 'green' biofuel policy.
>>>
>>> That is the biggest threat to the asiatic rainforests which are
>>> being clear cut to grow oil palms.
>>
>>
>> And Correa has a point that poverty can be a much
>> larger threat to the environment. But from what I've
>> read he has plenty of domestic opposition to drilling.
>>
>
> Poverty is of course best attacked by having income
> which oil exploration can bring and domestic opposition
> is rather effectively silenced as prosperity increases.
>
> Correa unfortunately presides over a government that refused
> to pay its debts both internal and international despite
> having the money to do so.
>
> from Wikipedia
>
> <Quote>
> On 12 December 2008, president Correa announced that Ecuador would not pay
> $30.6 million in interest to lenders of a $510-million loan, claiming that
> they were monsters.In addition, it claimed that $3.8 billion in foreign debt
> negotiated by previous administrations was illegitimate because it was
> authorised without executive decree.At the time of the announcement, the
> country had $5.65 billion in cash reserves.
> </Quote>
>
> In those circumstances he can hardly expect the world to provide
> cash for his pet projects.
Depend on the oil company... and there's not only the so-called "seven
sisters"... being PO'd because of the snowden incident, I suspect ends
signing a contract with gazprom, whose, even with unprofitable fields,
will glee at the entry in one of the major US economic/commercial
turfs... and I suspect that overpaying the taxation, also in nature,
will help Correa in both economy and consensus (public works, subsided
automotive petrol...); in other words, nothing new under the sun.
Bestt regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.